V&T Railroad Commission meeting 10/06/08 at 3pm. You should'a been there.
WARNING: These unofficial minutes most certainly contain implicit or explicit editorializing! The certainly are satire! Read at your own risk! When you see “IMHO” (in my humble opinion) you know it probably won't be humble.
WARNING: These are not official meeting minutes! These are prepared by Jim Lohse of Renorailfans.com and Traincop.com.
WARNING: If you have been following my reports the last few months you won't be surprised by what you read. IF YOU ARE NEW TO THESE NOTES you may be taken aback by my strident, caustic tone. What seems strident and caustic to you may be satire in my mind. The sad part is that the joke is on the taxpayer and the justice system.
CAUTION: The Commission is turning out to be such a joke of unprofessional illegal behavior that I might just be at my limits. I want to give you a heads up that I may quit attending these meetings. I've enjoyed bringing you the dirt on what goes on behind the scenes at the V&T Recon project. Over the last few months I have documented a history of bad governance. It's just that I can only watch so much illegal behavior on the part of a government body before I begin to believe there's no hope. I will attend next months meeting and write it up, but I make no promises beyond that. Sorry.
NOW ONTO THE MEETING JOKES, er, I mean NOTES:
October Meeting Summary: Surreal. Doozy. Humm-dinger. Chaos. Weird. Combative. Sniping.
These are all words that describe today's meeting of the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia & Truckee Railway Tourist Railroad Boondoggle. (NCRVTRTRB) The sniping was among the Commission members.
Well, it was another doozy of a meeting! Luckily Mayor Marv wasn't there or things really would have gotten out of control. Unluckily Project Attorney Mike Rowe wasn't there, he might have been able to rein in the Commission from doing a couple things 'above the law.' Of course, he's never stopped them before, so it probably didn't make a difference.
I didn't take my videocamera today, so I won't be giving a blow-by-blow description. I will give a lot of detail, just not exact quotes.
Item by Item Summary:
4 – Public comment: A couple people who were supposed to make public comments bailed out at the last minute. This was after I had told the press to expect multiple public comments. I made my comments as noted below about how the Commission claims to follow the law, but is actually holding themselves above the law. I announce the traincop.com website, submit the questions and ask for answers.
6 – Treasurer's Report – NEWSFLASH! There was a written report, finally!
7 – Report on Bills to be Ratified: -- NEWSFLASH! There was a written report! See my comments about the costs of owning the McCloud / Sierra #18 locomotive vs. what Sierra pays for it.
8 – Phase 2 Engineering Report – Pretty much standard housekeeping
9 – Bid for Phase 2C awarded to Q&D of Sparks, NV. Local boys make good! Do you know the joke, “Reno's so close to Hell you can see Sparks”?
10 – Awarding Engineering Contract for Phase 3 to Ken Dorr – Another No-Bid Contract!
11 – Right of Way Acquisition Report – Ken Dorr stands in for Mike Rowe and correctly states the law!
12 – Discussion of purchase of Gold Hill Land – The Commission ignores what Ken Dorr just said and flouts the law! It's business as usual!
13 – Review of Track Use Agreement for the REAL V&T to run partway on the new tracks – delayed for a second month in a Rowe!
14 – RIMS II Economic Impact Study – Statistics are great until the pols put their spin on them OR why by the Commission's logic the world would be a better place if government took all our money and spent it for us!
15 – Virginia & Truckee Railroad Report by Tom Gray – Bob Hadfield tells the truth and effectively says the train may stop in Gold Hill. Why else would the Commission need a parking lot in Gold Hill.
16 – Northern Nevada Railway Foundation and ex-Carson City Supervisor Janice Ayres tells Jim Lohse to go crawl back under his rock. What a jerk that guy Jim is for telling the truth. Janice claims the NNRF has raised $1.7 million for the Commission. Funny it's not on their 990's! Audits are painful.
READ THE DETAIL ON ITEM 16, I left when Bob Hadfield ignored open meeting law and refused to allow public comment on this agenda item.
19 – Commisioner Comments – Larry McPherson properly defends Lyon County from the bogus claims and higher tax rates of Carson City Reps. Boy, we really need two more Carson City reps on the Commission, as the NNRF, Mayor Marv and Bob Hadfield plan to add.
Let the games begin!
4. PUBLIC COMMENT ON NON-AGENDIZED ITEMS: Discussion may be limited to three minutes per person at the discretion of the Chairman. No action may be taken on a matter raised under this portion of the agenda until the matter itself has been specifically included on an agenda as an item upon which action may be taken.
Please note that in the agenda item description it says “comment on non-agendized items.” When a Nevada public meeting is structured this way, it means the governing body (the Commission) must allow comments on each agenda item as well.
I predict that the Commission will do what I've seen a few cities do. They will move to limit public comment.
This can be accomplished by making public comment a time to comment on ALL agenda items. Then you only have three minutes to make all your comments. Good enough for the City of Santa Cruz, good enough for the NCRVTRTRB! More on the above comments in Item 16, the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation report.
Public comment was supposed to consist of Bruce Kittess and Dennis Johnson making comments along with me. This didn't happen, after telling me in the morning they were going to make comments they bailed out.
I got up there and responded to Ron Allen's claims in the last meeting that the Attorney General has cleared all their actions. I pointed out that according to the letter from the AG they indeed has violated Nevada Open Meeting laws by not posting meeting minutes on their website in a timely fashion. The upshot was that the Commission quickly posted the offending minutes, the AG said “no harm no foul,” and the Commission was off the hook.
After Ron Allen said the Commission smelled like a rose I called the AG and confirmed that Ron misrepresented the AG's letter. The Nevada Attorney General only has jurisdiction over Open Meeting Law issues. Because the Commission is a multi-county agency, it's not considered to be a state agency. In my conversation with the AG's office I was told that on most issues the only recourse is for a citizen to file a complaint in a civil court asking a judge to enforce state law.
There are so many ways that the Commission ignores the law. The top two easy to understand examples are the requirement to rotate meetings among the five counties (Washoe, Storey, Lyon, Douglas and Carson City). The state law clearly calls for this but the Commission ignores it.
The second example is the part of state law that requires budgets to be accompanied by a proportional benefit estimate. I call this the benefit split. The law says for each proposed budget and for the operation of the Commission this benefit split or another indicator must be supplied. If these were supplied, state law would trigger the required payments. For a better explanation of this see the last section of http://www.traincop.com/2-state-budget-law-whos-in-charge.html
That's what I talked about.
6 -- treasurer report – ron allen
Ron Allen finally came through and provided a written treasurer's report! Hooray! Too bad Bonnie Weber wasn't there to see it.
7 --ACTION TO RATIFY THE PAYMENT OF BILLS SUBMITTED
It was interesting to see one of the bills. The bank statement for the loan on the #18 showed that last year the Commission spent nearly $20,000 on interest and principal payments on the loaner. The payments received from Sierra don't come anywhere near this, to the best of my knowledge.
The #18 is the former McCloud locomotive the Commission borrowed $420,000 to purchase. They made a deal with Sierra railroad to move the locomotive to Sierra's properties and now allow Sierra to run the locomotive as part of their passenger operations. The lease agreement is a joke, without boring you with all the details, the agreement calls for Sierra to pay the Commission $2 per passenger with no distance limitations. Sierra also pays up to $3000 per year to insure the locomotive. The Commission gets a hundred bucks or two hundred bucks a month during the operating season. There is a much bigger story to tell about the #18 but it's for another time and place.
8 -- PHASE 2-4 ENGINEERING report – Ken Dorr
This was pretty cut and dried, Phase 2A and 2B are nearly done, there is just a little touch-up work to do. The tracks over Overman Pit need to be lifted and relined due to the fill dirt sinking, which was expected. The contract to do this work was given to H&H, the California based trackbuilders who did Phase 2A and 2B. Because the lifting and relining contract was only for $9000 there was no requirement to put the work out to bid.
9 -- DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO CONSIDER AWARD OF THE BASE BID AND ALL OR A PORTION OF THE ADDITIVE BID CONTRACT FOR "BID NO.3 - RAILWAY IMPROVEMENTS PHASE 2C, FEDERAL AIDE PROJECT NO. DE-0032(059) (PWP #LY 2008-376) TO Q&D Construction, INC. AS THE LOWEST RESPONSIVE AND RESPONSIBLE BIDDER, INCLUDING 10% CONSTRUCTION CONTINGENCY FUNDING. - KEN DORR
This long title basically says that the next phase of trackwork is going to Q&D, a local company based in Sparks, Nevada. It's so nice to see a local company get the deal, because it keeps the construction spending in the Northern Nevada area.
There were ten bids ranging from a top of $8+ million to Q&D's winning bid of $6,666,666. Yes, the Antichrist is doing the next phase of track.
10 -- DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION TO CONSIDER APPROVAL OF CONTRACT AMENDMENT #6 OF THE ENGINEERING SERVICES CONTRACT BETWEEN THE COMMISSION AND MANHARD CONSULTING, LTD FOR WORK INCLUDING PHASE 2C CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT AND CONSTRUCTION SURVEYING, AND FOR COMPLETION OF THE PRELIMINARY DESIGN AND RIGHT-OF-WAY ENGINEERING FOR PHASE 3 AND PHASE 4 OF THE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT - KEN DORR AND MICHAEL ROWE
I didn't make this comment out loud, but this engineering contract was worth nearly $250,000 to Manhard Consulting, an Illinois-based company. I wondered why in most cases work over $10,000 or $25,000 need to be put out for competitive bids, but in this case the no-bid contract was awarded to Manhard Consulting. Don't get me wrong, I like Ken Dorr, but I didn't understand why this contract was exempt from competition given that several engineering companies exist in the area. Local companies like Lumos and Q&D provide engineering services.
11 -- RIGHT OF WAY ACQUISITIONS and attorney's report - MICHAEL ROWE
Michael Rowe was not at this meeting, Ken Dorr did provide an update on acquiring properties in the Carson River Canyon. The big three landowners are Bentley (of the former V&T Operating Company, I think), Serpa and Bertignoli(sp?). At the end of his presentation Ken noted that negotiations could not begin until the property appraisals were in hand. That last sentence has a lot of meat in it, read on.
12 -- Request for clarification of previous action regarding Svetic property purchase - MICHAEL ROWE
Here's where the real humm-dingers get started. This has to do with a property in Gold Hill along Highway 342 just south of the existing Virginia & Truckee Railroad tracks. It's near the crossing just before the tracks reach the Gold Hill Station. Along 342, from the tracks, going south on 342, you have property owned by the Gray's, then property owned by Joe Curtis, then the Svetic property which has a “for sale” sign on it. Stephen Lincoln is the listing agent.
I have to explain a little bit of law. Remember what I have said on the traincop.com website and elsewhere about how government is supposed to go about buying property. As noted, Ken Dorr just said that they can't negotiate for the Carson River Canyon properties without an appraisal in hand. The law actually says this is the case UNLESS the Commission waives their right to use eminent domain up front.
Keep in mind the Commission does not yet have an appraisals on this Gold Hill property and has not waived their right to eminent domain. They simply can't do what they are doing, which is to negotiate. They are putting the seller at a disadvantage.
So since Project Attorney Michael Rowe was not present, Stephen Lincoln came up to speak to the Commission. He and the Commission haggled about the sales price. Mike Rowe has previously told the Commission that the appraisal would come in around $65,000. The Commission agreed to revise their previous offer of $80,000 down to $65,000.
Now Stephen Lincoln was negotiating that the sales price needed to come in between $70,000 and $80,000. He tried to get the Commission to make a motion to reflect that.
I got up to make a comment like this: “I don't want to take this out of context, please tell me if I'm wrong. We just heard Ken Dorr say that you can't negotiate for land before you have the appraisal, but here you are negotiating without an appraisal.”
I got some answer that I forget, which prompted me to ask, “have you waived the use of eminent domain?”
They were kind of dumbstruck and put the item off until they have the appraisal.
It's key to note that someone (I think Bruce K, I'm not sure) got up and asked what the property was going to be used for. See the Virginia & Truckee Railroad report below for a critical follow-on to this item.
13 -- review and possible action on the track use agreement – Michael rowe
This was supposed to be a discussion that was delayed from last month's meeting about running the REAL Virginia & Truckee Railroad Equipment on the new Commission track. For awhile now the Virginia & Truckee Railroad has run their last train of the day down some of the new track built by the Commission.
The discussion of this agreement was delayed until next months meeting.
14 -- review of RIMS II UPDATE INCLUDING FEASIBILITY AND ECONOMIC IMPACT TABLES OF THE EXPANDED VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILROAD
Bob Hadfield talked about a new study the Commission requested from Stone Consulting / TransSystems. This study is supposed to estimate the economic impact of the Recon railroad construction and operation phases on the local economy. There are many holes in the study I intended to point out.
If you go to http://www.traincop.com you can see links at the top of the page showing the RIMS II study, my analysis of the RIMS II study, and Nevada Appeal articles related to the study. In a newspaper article a few days before the meeting I was quoted saying the study was not totally accurate when applied to the construction phase.
As Bob Hadfield finished his comments and opened it up for public comments, he did something very interesting. He told the audience what kind of comments he wanted to hear!
He said (basically) that if anyone wanted to criticize the methodology of the study that he didn't want to hear it! In all the public meetings I have attended (hundreds) the only person I have ever seen do this is Bob Hadfield! Amazing, he encourages free speech as long as it fits his limits!
So I got up there and pointed out the limitations of the study. I said I had spoken the RIMS II experts who didn't disagree with my assessment. To see my analysis see my website, http://www.traincop.com.
One things I said that isn't in my analysis was that the Commissioners should be careful how they spin the impact of construction spending. After I was done, Bob said he wasn't spinning anything, but that I was. I thought that was pretty funny.
15 -- VIRGINIA AND TRUCKEE RAILROAD REPORT – TOM GRAY
Tom Gray tried to bring up issues related to the proposed track use agreement from Item 13, but Bob Hadfield shut him down. Tom talked about various things going on at his railroad in Virginia City.
Then he asked a question about the Gold Hill land purchase proposal. He asked what the reason was to get the land, as he was concerned that the Commission would try to isolate him and run buses from Gold Hill to Virginia City.
This idea has been floated before. If the Commission can't find a way to work with the real Virginia & Truckee Railroad, they might stop the train in Gold Hill. The idea is that the tourists would get off the train and ride a bus to Virginia City. I know, it's crazy talk. This is how desperate the Commission is to screw the Grays.
This idea won't work, anywhoo. The road from Gold Hill to Virginia City contains a steep switchback curve known as Greiner's Grade or Greiner's Curve, I forget which. No bus larger than a 19-passenger bus can get up the grade. Imagine 200-300 train riders being told they can't ride all the way to Virginia City. They will stop in Gold Hill and a fleet of ten or fifteen airport shuttle buses will take them the rest of the way. This idea is not workable, period.
The only other choice is to run two or three big buses from Gold Hill, back down through Silver City to the 341/342 split a few miles down the road, and then a few miles back up the 341 truck route to Virginia City. It's crazy talk, or, as Kramer would say, kooky-talk.
Back to the meeting. Tom Gray just asked why the Commission wanted the land. Two interesting things were said. First, I forget who made the claim that there was no other access to the track. There is access via Telegraph Road behind the Gold Hill Hotel.
The second reason was interesting. Finally someone was honest. Bob Hadfield said, “parking. We need the land for parking.”
Unless the train is going to stop at Gold Hill there is ZERO need for parking in Gold Hill. Thanks Bob Hadfield for being honest that the Commission is making an end run around the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.
Final note: it's sad that the Commission had a contract with the Gray's REAL V&T for ten years to operate the train once (if) it was finished. In 2006 the Commission ignored the valid contract, threw the Gray's under the bus, and chose Sierra Railroad to run the new operation. This is when this kooky-talk about isolating the Grays came about.
Tom Gray may not be totally innocent, but he's mostly innocent, and certainly much more innocent than the Commission. If the Commission had any common sense they would work out a track use agreement to run on the Gray's FRA-approved track. Instead, they want to cut off their nose to spite their face.
By taking the “isolate the Grays” approach, the Commission is either going to build a train to Gold Hill or spend extra millions they don't have taking the Gray's REAL Virginia & Truckee Railroad via eminent domain.
Imagine the government taking a private railroad so they can build a public railroad. It's not California, but it seems like it.
16 -- Northern nevada railway foundation report – janice ayres
Just so you understand why Janice Ayres was so mad at me, I had printed the Ten Questions from the www.traincop.com website and placed copies for the public to read. She got a hold of the printout and didn't like the question, “Why Does the Commission Give More Money to Non-Profits Than It Receives? Are The Commissioners Self-Dealing in Their Memberships in These Fund Raising Organizations?”
OK, I admit, it's a pretty heavy question. Janice Ayres read me the riot act and told me to crawl back under my rock. She even accused me of running for President based on the evil lies she said I was telling. I am so bad, according to Janice.
Well, if you look at the Foundation's fundraising record as reported to the IRS, there's no mention of $1.7 million. But all the same, audit be damned, Janice Ayres said the $30,000 payments the Commission makes to the Foundation paled in comparison to the $1.7 million the Foundation has raised for the Commission. Did I mention I am a horrible person?
My understanding of Nevada State Law regarding Open Meetings is that public comment is allowed on specific agenda items. I think I may be the first person to ask to make comments item by item at these meetings. Politicians do what they want regardless of public comment, so they see such comments as a waste of time.
At previous meetings I made public comments after the NNRF report. Just last month, I think, I raised the question that I could not figure out what the net-net benefit was to the Commission after factoring in their payments to the Foundation.
So once former-Supervisor (and former Commissioner) Janice Ayres was done saying what a pack of lies I am selling, I stood up to make a comment pointing out the holes in her argument. I wanted to say that my questions had gone unanswered. I wanted to say that I tried to attend a Foundation meeting to ask these questions and that Steven Saylor told me not to show up because the meetings were closed. I wanted to repeat my previous comments that I didn't care what the Foundation did, that I was only concerned that a government body was paying for Foundation activities while Chairman Bob Hadfield is also a Board-member of the Foundation.
None of this happened. Bob Hadfield said he was not going to take public comment on this Foundation report. End of story, period, zip, zero, nada.
I stood up anyway, got in front of the microphone and asked, “Are you sure you don't want to take public comment on this agenda item?” Bob glared at me and said yes, he was sure he wasn't going to let me speak.
I left the meeting at that point, and as I walked by Janice Ayres continued to say what a bad guy I was. She claimed that Marcia Burgess had called me. That is not true.
Tomorrow I speak to the AG about this probable violation of Open Meeting Law.
I just want to mention that, as I joke, “I used to work in IT so I have a pretty thick skin.” None of Janice Ayres comments bother me personally in the least. I actually thought her line that I was telling so many lies I must be running for President was pretty funny.
But at least I don't say one thing and file 990 forms to the IRS that say something different.
19 -- COMMISSIONER COMMENTS
Now here's a doozy. This shows that the Commissioners don't really get along. For some time the Commission powers from Carson City complain that Lyon, Douglas and Washoe County don't pull their weight. At the same time, as noted above, the Commission doesn't provide the legally required benefit estimates that would quantify what the counties are supposed to pay.
It escapes me now where Dwight Millard began sniping at Lyon County. It must have been during the construction discussion. All of a sudden, out of the blue, Millard suggests that evil Lyon County has seen huge benefits because some construction materials. He asked Ken Dorr if they could arrange for materials to be delivered to Storey County to help them out!
Ken said that if this were a private project they could do that. He said, “unfortunately this is a government project” and it was up to the contractor to decide where to have materials delivered. Lyon County has a lower tax rate and Tunnel 2 is in Lyon County, so it was natural to deliver materials there.
Thank God for straight talkers like Larry McPherson who pointed out the many contributions Lyon County has provided to the project. The Commission is above the law and it's Lyon County's fault – NOT!