V&T Reconstruction Commission Chairman Bob Hadfield is also a boardmember of the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation. The NNRF supposedly raises great deals of money for the Nevada Commission to Reconstruct the Virginia & Truckee Railroad.

My month-old request to see the net benefit to the Commission has not yet been fulfilled. When I tried to attend the Foundation meeting to ask these questions, Steven Saylor told me I couldn't come because the Foundation meetings are not open. Later, Marcia Burgess said in public that the meetings are open to the public!

The Commission has given money to the Foundation annually. While the Commission and the Foundation claim that the NNRF raised a $1 million donation from the Nevada Commission on Tourism, you won't find it in their 990's.

Either the NNRF didn't raise that money, or they did raise it and they are lying to the IRS. Which way do they want it? Finally, much of the actual fundraising by the NNRF has gone for their own expenses.

At the September, 2008 meeting I asked what is the net-net gain to the Commission of the Foundation activities? I asked, does the Foundation pay more back than they are given by the Commission? I have yet to receive an answer!

DISCUSSION OF NORTHERN NEVADA RAILWAY FOUNDATION

Before I go on, let's look at the million dollar NCOT donation. This is a great source of controversy and angst. The NCOT donation was gotten in part by Janice Ayres, and in part by the work of others not related to the Foundation. At the time Janice Ayres helped get this NCOT money, she was also the Chairperson of the railroad Commission. The question is, which “hat” was she wearing, did she help raise this money as Chairperson or as a Foundation member?

To me the smoking gun is (not) in the Northern Nevada Railway Foundations IRS 990 forms. These are standard publicly available forms that a 501(c)(3) must file if it raises over $25,000 in a fiscal year. You can go to the Foundation Center website and look up these forms for yourself. Just type in Northern Nevada Railway Foundation and choose Nevada, then click find and you get to the page listing the NNRF 990's for 2004-2007.

You will not find any $1 million donation listed in their IRS records. With all due respect, they either did raise the money and forgot to put it in their 990's (not good) or they didn't raise that money. The Commission recently gave the Foundation $30,000 to help fund Railway Reflections. While this event is touted by the NNRF as a fantastically successful event, it failed in terms of raising money, which is the NNRF's reason for existence.

HOW JANICE AYRES FLIPPED OUT AND BOB HADFIELD ALLOWED PERSONAL ATTACKS, THEN BROKE THE LAW

At the October, 2008 Commission meeting I printed the front page of this website with the ten questions. I placed it on a table for people to pick up as they walked into the meeting. Janice Ayres, President of the NNRF was not at the previous meeting to hear my comments. I had said that as a private group the Foundation is free to do what they want. My concern was focused on the net-net benefit of the Commission's payments to the Foundation, where Bob Hadfield is a boardmember. To me, this might represent self-dealing, based on my understanding of the concept.

So Ms. Ayres, unaware of the background behind my complaint, became furious at me during the meeting. She got up during the agenda item for the Foundation report and spent the entire time blasting my so-called lies about the Foundation. Here she claimed the Foundation has raised $1.7 million, including the $1 million NCOT donation that is not listed on the Foundation's tax forms.

I didn't take any of it personally. In fact, she was rather funny! At one point she said, "based on the lies this guy is telling on the traincop.com website he must be running for President." That was a good one, even if it's totally off-base.

Now, under Nevada Open Meeting Law the Chairman (Hadfield) has the right to prevent personal attacks. He didn't, he let Ms. Ayres go on an on about how I should crawl back under my rock.

Without going into a long explanation here, the structure of the Commission meetings was that comment on non-agendized items is allowed at the start of the meeting. According to sections 7.0.4 and 8.0.4 of the AG's Open Meeting Law handbook, if this is the case then:

The designated public comment period required by NRS 241.020(2)(c)(3) should be content neutral and not restricted to nonagenda items unless the public is permitted to speak on agenda items as they are heard.

In fact, at the previous meeting I got up and made a public comment on the very same agenda item. After Janice's comedy routine, I got up to respond that my concerns were focused on the Commission, not on the Foundation. Bob Hadfield prevented my comment. It's written up in this Nevada Appeal story, "Critic says V&T Commission violated open meeting law."