Reno
Citizen
November & December, 1998 The Reno Citizen takes no responsibility for views expressed by its writers. But we would if we could!
Reno
Citizen
November & December, 1998 The Reno Citizen takes no responsibility for views expressed by its writers. But we would if we could!
Click Picture for information about editor
DEAR READERS:
Staff members thank all citizens for their loyal support... as The FREE Reno Citizen magazine enters its fourth year of publication (2 1/2 years on the internet). We originally planned to dedicate this issue to past successes. But reporting on continuing improprieties throughout local government (Reno Airport, Reno City Hall, Reno Redevelopment Agency, and other guilty agencies) takes precedence.
Join the DON'T VOTE Party
Sam Dehne
This may sound surprising, but if you are thinking of not voting, consider joining the DON'T VOTE Party.
Fact: Reno city hall (especially the mayor) can't be trusted.
Fact: Northern Nevada banana republic style voting process (including the Secretary of State) can't be trusted... as proven in the recent primaries where the voting laws were broken 4,653 times with no regard to any corrective measures.
Fact: Fat cat Special Interest money buys votes.
Fact: By being a member of the DON'T VOTE Party, your vote can't be bought.
Our very simple Platform is a recommendation that you don't vote... unless you are happy with:
* city hall funneling of your taxes to themselves, their cronies, and their sweetheart deals,
* illegal taxpayer funded airport landgrabs... resulting in confiscation of citizens' homes and dead bodies in Rewana Farms,
* rubberstamping of virtually every developer's cancerous growth project,
* out of control noise, danger, blight, and pollution,
* city hall stomping all over the USA Constitution,
* the wasting of $dozens of millions of your taxes on a railroad trench that only benefits fat cats.
* the same old general stinking rotten northern Nevada government.
Over 70% of Reno citizens already belong to the DON'T VOTE Party. So if you want to be a winner... join the DON'T VOTE Party.
But if, on the other hand, you do feel compelled to vote, the DON'T VOTE Party recommends that you... don't give in to that urge.
Sing the Don't Vote Song: (tune of Battle Hymn)
DON'T VOTE
7 out of 10, they don't vote...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
Who's the dummy, 3 out of 10...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
4,563 times, they broke the law...
Be a don't voter... don't vote.
Be a don't voter, be a don't voter...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
Banana Republic, voting type machines...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
Join up with your neighbors, don't be a fool...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
They take all your money, then they waste it...
Be a don't voter... don't vote.
Fraud and deception, sneakin and conniving...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
Disconjerkutigulating, fools want to rule...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
Skip all the long lines, skip the wait...
Be a don't voter... don't vote
CORRUPTION IN GOVT? YOU BET:
Funneling $$$ to Cronies
Kickback Contracts
Broken Voting Laws
Illegal Secret Meetings
Desecration of Freedom of Speech
Disguising Agenda Items
Bloated Council Pay Raises
Illegal Secret Meetings
Missing $550,000 Funneled to Mayors Conf
Illegal Secret Meetings
Reno Mayor "Sells" His Office... Open Letter to KOH Radio Host, by Sam Dehné
You and I both know that what you and the mayor did was wrong. Granted, your plans were severely toned down... thanks to me. But it was wrong. It violated the law and the spirit of the law.
If you have the brain you claim you have, you must acknowledge this is a broken law... like it or not.
It is my modus operandi to have evidence to back up the things I say and do. When I don't have specific evidence, I don't make charges until I do.
For that joke of an ethics commission to once again whitewash violations by this mayor is... a pathetic joke.
There is enough bona fide corruption in local government for me to not have to make anything up... which I don't...
There is enough corruption in local government to keep you in business for a long time... a veritable Mecca for a courageous radio talk show critter. Do you know any? Are you up to the job?
ETHICS COMMISSION COMPLAINT
(Full internet version at http://webitor.com/rfo.htm(Click) - with numerous other verifiable and valid Complaints against this mayor)
NRS 281.240, Grant of authority to discharge duties of public office unlawful; giving consideration for
grant unlawful; penalties.
1. Every person holding or exercising any office under the laws or constitution of this state, who shall, for any reward or gratuity paid, or agreed to be paid, grant to another the right or authority to discharge any of the duties of such office (except his lawful deputies), shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $5,000, and shall be removed from office.
2. Every person who shall give, or make any agreement to give, any reward or gratuity in consideration of such grant or authority, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000.
During the month of July 1998, Jeff Griffin, Mayor of Reno, did grant to Ralph "Rusty" Humphries, talk
show host on Reno's KOH radio, the authority to direct staff and resources of the City of Reno, to
issue "good will" proclamations in the name of the City of Reno, and to tour the interior of the closed
Mapes Hotel-Casino.
In return, and as compensation for his grant of authority to Mr. Humphries, Jeff Griffin was given
approximately two hours of air time on Mr. Humphries' radio program. The market value of two hours of advertising on KOH during prime afternoon hours can be rated at $1,200 or more. Mr. Griffin is currently running for re-election to his position as mayor.
Short Answer: No!
Sam Dehné
Just a few excerpts from one day's worth of corruption, chicanery, and collusion... among the fat cats in an anti-government that is hell-bent on destroying what used to be good:
1. Don't believe what you read on the city hall agendas. City hall continues to be premeditatedly fraudulent in the way it describes important items for the agenda... either using false terms, omitting important words, or just plain use of gobbledygook... so citizens have no idea what city hall is really going to try to get away with at a council meeting.
a. a stupid attempt to get the mayor a 98% pay raise was hidden in the disconjerkutigulated use of the term "setting"... when what was really meant was raising.
b. the ridiculous attempt to waste over $$$2 hundred million by building a huge trench through the middle of Reno was hidden in subterfugeous terminology (too long to report here) that gave citizens no warning of the truth... that the Depressed Railway Project was going to be discussed.
2. Watch what you do with your fingers. Pointing a finger is now grounds for elimination of the constitutionally protected (except in Reno) First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech. Current Reno city council does not know how to contend with the truth. Council and city attorney Lynch, in an obvious collusionary plot, accused me of disrupting the council meeting by pointing a finger at their whinny council patsy, Aiezi. To disrupt is to "render asunder" (dict). In a real world Council and Lynch and the rest would be put in a barrel of tar... as feathers were sprinkled on them.
The current un-council then attempted to have me removed from the citizens' podium as I exposed yet more corrupt mis-government in Reno... for pointing my (index) finger!
Now, in order for citizens to hear the truth exposing massive corruption in Reno government, it will take a majority vote of council to re-establish the civil rights that were stolen. Will pigs fly?
3. Keep your hands on your wallets. The un-american Reno Airport board of appointed aviation amateur "trustees" voted to accept... a huge "fill-in-the-blank" subsidization of their beloved Reno Airport... disguised as money for repair from flood damage. A flood that the airport, itself, exacerbated by building the airport on the flood plane. Take a look at the acres and acres of concrete that has been poured at Reno's lowest point. More of your federal taxes being embezzled to subsidize what should be a private airport. Also:
a. To make matters even worse, it was admitted that if the airport is able to collect any insurance money for damage caused by the flood it helped create, it gets to keep it... on top of the pork barrel money they will receive via this boondoggle!
b. If you want data from the airport... even if they have it on hand, they have a policy of making you wait 10 days before they will give it to you.
c. The airport used legally embezzled tax dollars to force innocent citizens out of their homes... because the airport claimed it was too noisy. And now they are trying to use that ill-gotten land to build a golf course. A golf course?!? What could be nosier?
d. The airport had an illegal secret meeting at Boomtown... with the Air Guard, the landgrab specialist (GRW), and the fat cats who are going to make $$millions off the grief of Rewanians. Secret meetings of government agencies are against the laws of the land.
4. The FAA is out of control. It is flat impossible for the same organization to promote and police at the same time... period. Yet the local FAA continues to do this by throwing $$$dozens of millions of your taxes at the Reno airport (promoting)... while at the same time letting the amateur trustees get away with unsafe, hazardous, and unfriendly airport operations (not policing). That is why they can't be trusted... period.
5. Making citizens pay for something they don't want. City hall wants to build $$$multi-multi-million dollar RR trench through Reno. In yet another audacious attempt to fleece their constituents, they want the very same citizens who don't want the blight of a trench in their backyards, to pay for it with a Tracks Tax. Why?
a. Because of all the sweetheart construction $$$ deals already promised to cronies.
b. Because the casinos want it moved out of their back yards.
c. Because the carpetbagging city manager wants to. d. Because city hall is stupid... and can't be trusted.
6. The Reno Airport is Downright Unsafe. A small private plane was blown off the runway in what was almost a tragic accident... when the airport allowed it to land side by side... downwind from a huge airliner with a dangerously strong crosswind. What were they thinking? When the Reno Airport has to revert to such bizarre landing techniques, it is dangerous.
7. Let the Developers Pay for Schools. Greedy developers are causing the need for more schools. Make the developers pay for the schools... and other negative impacts their greed creates. Use all that ill-gotten lobbying money to lobby the developers. Sparks mayor Breslow predicts that $100,000,000 will be lost... as businesses go elsewhere. Sick and tired citizens say Goodbye... and Adios...
AIRPORTGATE NORTH - Reno Airport Schemes with Reno Mayor
Open Letter to Reno Airport Board
On 6 August, 1997 the Reno Airport Board voted to give a contract to establish a Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) to the Reno mayor's private company, Nevada Foreign Trade Service (NFTS). As has been pointed out to the Board on numerous occasions, this violates a plethora of Reno Laws and Nevada Statutes... as well as the spirit of those Laws and Statutes (improper use of position in government to secure unwarranted advantages, failure to obey bid process, failure to disclose, and many other insults to good government).
NFTS thereafter drew up the contract on its own company letterhead and took it to its companion at the Airport (the since departed Jim Kitchel) to be signed.
That agreement said that the application for a FTZ would be submitted within 90 days. Please answer these 3 simple questions for the record:
1. What is the status of the application?
2. Why was the agreement drawn up by the employee (NFTS)... in contravention to standard Airport (and Nevada government) procedure?
3. Is it the Airport's plan to extend far beyond the bounds of the already very fishy contract... and allow the mayor's company to be "exclusive Operator" of the FTZ at the Airport in violation of Nevada Law and spirit of the Law? In other words, is there a semi-secret scheme afoot to extend an already wrongful contract... without required discussion and vote... in further violation of even more Laws and Statutes? If not, please explain the wording the mayor and Kitchel put in that agreement.
Sam Dehné
Subject: Reno Airport's Letter to Citizens Is Filled with More Alibis for the Mayor... and for Themselves
The Reno Airport's 9/14/98 Response to Citizen's Questions is flawed, misses the point, obfuscates... and is unacceptable.
This is gross misconduct; justifying removal of the interim Airport Director.
The outstanding and continuing problem (notwithstanding attempted alibis for the mayor by his Airport subordinates) is that the current mayor's Contract with the Reno Airport is in violation of numerous NRS statutes (including, but not limited to, NRS 281.411, 281.421, 281.481, and 281.230).
These are down-to-earth statutes enacted by governments specifically to thwart violations against the practice of good government... violations like the referenced scheme between Reno's mayor and the Airport.
The Reno Airport, with help from fired airport bureaucrats Kitchel and White, board members Mack and Camp, and others, concocted a Memo Document (Contract) that, according to Nevada Laws and the "spirit" of those Laws, is illegal. No attempt at cover-up by the Airport will overcome those facts.
As citizens have come to anticipate, the Airport is once again shrouding the truth... a now common practice learned during the Rewana Farms landgrab mess, the legalized embezzlement of millions of tax dollars under the guise of "noise" mitigation, the illicit appointment of airport board members, the illegal doling out of golden parachutes, etc, etc, and ad infinitum.
The mayor is also in direct and indirect violation of the very city charter he is supposed to serve under. Section 2.02.02, to wit; Council (mayor) members shall have no direct or indirect contracts, leases, or agreements with the city of Reno. Instead,
1. The mayor appointed controlling membership of the Airport board (4 of 8 people)... thus giving him direct control over the Airport... and thus making the RENO Airport a distinct part of the city of RENO.
2. Those Airport board members serve at his pleasure (he can remove them)... thus giving him control over the Airport... and thus making the RENO Airport a distinct part of the city of RENO.
3. The mayor's appointed subordinate board members (and the rest of the trustees) acquiesced to an unethical scheme for the mayor to feather his nest by concoction of an illegal Contract.
What part of this abomination of good government wouldn't a person of average intelligence (and honor) understand?
Former Airport bureaucrats White and Kitchel were removed for obfuscations such as described above. Interim Director Bennett is following in their guilty footsteps and must also be removed immediately. But no Golden Parachutes this time!
What a disconjerkutigulating situation it turned out to be! Those Reno city council critters were trying to sneak that 98% salary increase past the citizenry... so that (as they admitted) they could finally get "better" people into the positions they held... an obvious negative reflection on their own lack of qualifications.
There was the temptation to let them do that in hopes that the city might finally be in hands of people who knew what they were doing... and who might be honorable enough to refrain from feathering their own nests... and hang up those rubberstamps.
But, NO! WRONG! It is the citizens who must decide the direction of council salaries. For THIS council, there should be serious consideration of a downward direction. Just a few years ago Reno citizens overwhelmingly rejected any thought of a pay raise for council.
They further revealed that they had already funded the pay increase at their semi-secret meeting. Before the vote! Disgusting government!
The news media was alerted to this clandestine scheme via FAX, phone calls, email, and the internet, and they showed up in force. Citizens spoke vehemently against it... obviously giving courage to the council members who jumped ship and also spoke against the ridiculous idea.
Bottom line; the plot was thwarted... for now. They voted 4 to 2 to postpone their very own scheme until a later date... maybe when citizens weren't looking.
It was laughable to watch council critters Herndon and Aiazzi literally peeing their pants... begging to get their beloved mayor a much unwarranted pay raise. The mayor was not in attendance which made it even more awkward... because he was the one sitting member who would immediately benefit from the 98% pay increase.
And Newburg was astute enough to recognize that support of this un-American proposition would be the death knell to his political aspirations. So even he deviated from the secret Retreat plot and voted against it... although he and council still have another shot at it when it comes up again.
It is important to note that the mayor and much of council already have gotten huge defacto pay raises directly and indirectly... through the funneling of tax dollars to themselves and/or their campaign cronies and fat cat bosses. So a pay raise was even further unwarranted.
Who was given credit for overthrowing this despicable attempt to rape the citizens? Was credit given to the citizens who discovered this disgraceful insult, exposed it, and then spoke against it? No, as usual, the foxes gave themselves credit... for the way they were guarding those chickees...
Reno City Council Was Poised to Raise Its Salaries Sam Dehné
In another subterfugeous display of audacity and arrogance, Reno's mayor and city council tomorrow will vote on raising their salaries a whopping 98%.
It is a fact that the council was elected to office by only 16% (mayor) to 28% of the registered voters. Yet they are now taking steps to further stick it to the citizens... completely neglecting the fact that it is supposed to be bosses (the people) who decide how much to pay their employees.
This mayor's terrible record (diverting of tax dollars to himself and cronies, rubberstamping of uncontrolled cancerous growth; resulting in blight, noise, pollution, terrible streets, and other problems ad infinitum) justifies a pay reduction instead.
The very muddying up of the true facts by calling the agenda item a "setting" of salaries... is further evidence of the typical purposely vague and clandestine manner in which this city hall operates.
The whole scheme was concocted at their semi-secret Retreat earlier this year up in the mountains far from reasonable scrutiny by good honest citizens.
Mayor and council are part-time, volunteer jobs. There are qualified citizens in Reno who were and are willing to work for the agreed salary.
If there is to be any salary change (in either direction), THE CITIZEN/BOSSES MUST DECIDE! The alibi that this won't take effect until November doesn't cut it. Citizens must be given the opportunity to decide if elected officials deserve pay raises... or pay reductions.
Citizens who sit idly by and allow themselves to be shafted once again by city hall... have no business complaining. Unless they raise some fingers to thwart yet another slap in their faces, they deserve what they get.
ALERT: Late breaking news is that council clowns have re-agendized this insult against the citizens... after another backroom discussion to rob enough votes to overturn their earlier decision to not raise salaries. Corruption continues...
CITIZEN WATCHDOG
Sam Dehné
19. De-javu all over again: Reno city hall huddled citizens into its chambers and told them to bend over to receive their "benefits". A huge taxation-without representation unilateral Assessment was being levied against each of them... to protect them from train noise. Noise that they were not complaining about... just like the FAA/Reno Airport attack on innocent citizens in Rewana Farms 3 years earlier.
18. Only at Reno's un-American city council is pointing a finger considered "disruptive". Disruptive - "rendering asunder". Just what is it they are afraid to hear? Why are they afraid of the Truth? Why are those morally bankrupt bozos trying to silence citizens?
17. Citizens of Reno are guilty of "Battered Voter" syndrome... they act like battered spouses... refusing to recognize a bad spouse (city council).
16. Gambling in California? Indians should have the right to do what they want to do with their OWN LAND... period!
15. It is wrong for the Reno Air Races to be heavily subsidized by the federal government. This event is a private one (only the cats are allowed to benefit), and those military flyovers costs the TAXPAYERs $$$hundreds of thousands of dollars. Very exciting, maybe... but WRONG! The federal government (citizens) should be reimbursed from the Air Race's bloated coffers... otherwise it is downright embezzlement.
14. City hall is finally following Sam Dehne's repeated demands of a year ago... and removing the parking meters around city hall. Why should citizens have to pay to visit THEIR own government?
14a. Now let's "Lop the heads off" of ALL of the meters... so citizens can visit THEIR own downtown without being charged.
13. Would Mills Lane tolerate the quibbling by the various authorities responsible for the illegal "Banana Republic" style election that just took place in northern Nevada? When you do something blatantly wrong... like breaking the Voting Law (at least) 4,693 times... you are obligated to step to the plate and take your licks.
13a. From his autobiography:
"Am I tough? Yes," said Judge Lane. "That is, if you're talking about being not very tolerant of people who don't accept responsibility, who don't stand
up and be counted." But, he adds, "If you're thinking of someone who's going to be hard-nosed and throw the book at everybody, that's not me."
13b. Thus, according to his "qualifying comment", the local Voting Authorities (Washoe County Commission and their appointed Registrar of Voting) must immediately correct the recent blunder, or the "book SHOULD be thrown at them".
13c. A very simple solution: Correct the illegal vote by sending Absentee Ballots to ALL voters who did not (get an honest chance to) vote in the election. Anything short of this would disenfranchise unknown thousands of voters... that's unacceptable.
12. About 20 years ago the Reno Airport confiscated land from innocent citizens in the Home Gardens area south of the airport... because (the airport demanded)... it was "too noisy". They used YOUR federal tax dollars to force these folks out of their homes because (the airport demanded)... it was "too noisy". Cowardly bullying at its devious worst.
12a. Now the diabolical airport wants to build a golf course on the exact land that they demanded was too noisy for the innocent citizens to live on.
12b. Golfers will be subjected to the exact same noise (that the airport demanded was too bad for the innocent homeowners)... so that the Airport can profit from their greedy scheme. Can there be any worse "noise" situation... than golfers meandering under the noise, danger and pollution of 100s of jets taking off?
12c. And where do you think the illicit profits will go? Back into YOUR federal coffers; where they belong? NO! The Reno Airport is going to legally embezzle these funds into their coffers.
12d. Competing private golf courses should scream "Fore". The Reno Airport is using federal tax dollars to build and operate a competing golf course. Will the scheming and conniving ever end?
Shouldn't the other airlines cry "foul" when the Reno Airport subsidizes Continental Airlines to the tune of $200,000? More "Corporate Welfare at its worst... but not as bad as the report above.
11. What law gives the Atlantis Casino the right to tear up the neighborhood for months... causing traffic jams, pollution, noise, and general nuisance to dozens of 1,000s of taxpaying citizens? If you tried to do it you would be arrested!
Check the records and you will find that Atlantis bribed the mayor with at least $4,000 (reported) to his re-election campaign just months before. Within 4 months he mayor then voted to approve the blightful expansion. Politics as usual in Reno, Nevada, USA.
When will the Golden Goose be completely fried?
Reno is your city, folks. When are you going to stand up and take it back?
10. Campaign Finance Reform?
According to official "Reno Mayoral Race" city hall campaign records and reports:
a. Jeff Griffin paid $93,000 (much of this consisting of tax dollars funneled from citizens' tax coffers directly to his campaign or indirectly to his campaign through his cronies) for his 13,300 votes... that's 7 DOLLARS per vote.
b. Sam Dehne paid $788 for his 2500 votes... that's 31 CENTS per vote.
Thus:
c. With Griffin's money and Dehne's ingenuity... at that rate Dehne would have gotten 300,000 votes.
d. Or on the other hand, with Dehne's money and Griffin's lack of ingenuity... at that rate Griffin would have gotten 110 votes!
9. Fact: A lot more than 2,503 Reno citizens want Sam Dehne to be mayor.
Isn't it about time to start listening to all those people who swear there is something fishy about the ballot counting process in northern Nevada?
Virtually every government agency in the area is influenced and corrupted by the fat cat Special Interests (The Reno Citizen is full of reports on this mess). Therefore, it does not take a Rocket Scientist to conclude that these fat cats might very possibly have infiltrated... the bureaucratic organization that puts the corrupt people in power in the first place...
Some of the results of the recent races literally beg for an independent investigation...
9a. Notwithstanding the potential skullduggery... at 31 cents a vote Sam was a bargain.
8. Why did city hall nit-pick about a $25 campaign contribution from a stranger to Sam Dehne's puny "war chest"? Are they keeping such close tabs on the really huge contributions to the other candidates? What difference does it make anyway? City hall and the attorney never demand reports of huge Conflicts of Interest (or even disclosure) by the current mayor at council meetings anyway... and the Banana Republic voting machine can't be trusted...
7. Airports are “deadly neighbors” according to the Summer issue of Earth Island Journal. They disburse pollution over surrounding communities: The article lists the toxins that rain down from planes. A physicist says “the pollution levels from one 747 take-off are somewhat similar to setting the local gas station on fire and flying it over your head.”
6. Anybody who would want to be mayor of Reno... with Sam Dehne lurking out there... Watchdogging over corruption... must have a screw loose.
5. Terrorist attack "retaliation"... With all the Tomahawks missiles fired, it cost somewhere between $1 and $5 million per "terrorist" killed... not even counting operational expenses...
Does the U.S. government have any valid reason for an embassy in either of those 2 countries? Why not an internet site instead?
Does U.S. have any interests in that region that are worth this kind of extremely dangerous confrontation?
Did the prez confer with Lewinsky first?
4. What Reno government (and the Airport Board) lack... is a CODE OF HONOR.
3. Why do the Reno Sparks Convention Authority (RSCVA) Rules of Procedure require that a citizen at Public Comment... who makes personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks... may be forthwith barred from future meetings? Freedom of Speech is every citizen's right... guaranteed by the US government.
This is a government body and, as such, it MUST abide by the United States Constitution's First Amendment right to Freedom of Speech.
Just who is going to decide what is "personal, impertinent, or slanderous"?
2. Why was Reno city hall afraid to agree to mandatory drug testing... the same tests their workers have to take? What kind of "leadership" is that? It's no leadership.
Free Speech in Reno? Not!
Sam Dehné 10/05/98
Be at Reno city hall 1/2 hour before Tuesday's noon council meeting and hear Sam's musical comments about Reno's form of non-government... in all its sleazy slipshod splendor.
Reno city hall has taken it upon itself to re-write the USA Constitution. Why? Because it does not want citizens to hear the truth... about local governmental corruption, kickbacks, and arrogance.
On 29 Sept, 1998, council was being scolded because it was once again violating NRS 241.020, 2. (c) (1) that requires agendas contain; "A clear and complete statement of the topics scheduled to be considered during the meeting." City hall had disguised the agenda item so that no intelligent citizen could possibly know what was being discussed.
Another nasty low-blow was delivered. In its typically cowardly manner, city council banned Sam Dehne from speaking the truth... because he pointed a (index) finger at council.
"That's enough, Mister Dehne." spouted the mayor in all his pomposity... and the rest of the sniveling council acquiesced... except the bravely protesting Candy Pearce.
In the future, council thinks it has the right to decide whether to allow Sam his First Amendment rights to Free Speech. THEY will vote on allowing HIM his legal rights. And their honor will surface at about the time pigs learn to fly.
On the other hand, it doesn't really matter... because nobody seems to care about this nincompoopfratigulated form of non-government.
Other, more citizen-friendly, methods of informing the public of the city hall mess... will be created.
Click back to The Reno Citizen
