Bob Hadfield, Chairman -- Sorry Bob for the bad photo, it's your lobbyist registration picture from the Nevada State lobbyist website, if you give me a better photo I'll replace the image.
I like Bob, he's a civil guy. He's also a former Interim Lyon County Manager, currently a Minden Town Council Member, former head of the Nevada Association of Counties and has his fingerprints on a private railroad development project to rebuild the Carson and Colorado Railroad as a commuter rail line. I like Bob but he's no economist and buys into Mayor Marvs overinflated claims about the railroad recon project.
Mayor Marv Teixeira -- Marv, that's a pretty good photo. Back when I believed Marv's sales pitch we used to get along. Then I tried to hold an informational meeting about the project and was scolded by him for confusing people. I said, "If you don't like my meeting hold one of your own." He says he will debate "anyone, anywhere, anytime" -- we'll see. The meeting he worried about was actually very supportive of giving Kevin Ray a great chance to educate the public. There was nothing to worry about, Mayor!
Ron Allen is Mr. Railroad in Carson City, making him a big fish in a little pond. For ten years he was President of the Friends of the Nevada State Railroad Museum. After sitting out a year I believe he will be voted back in for another ten years.
Ron's great claim to fame is that his dad was the last Roadmaster for the V&T in 1949 and 1950 after Gordon Sampson fired the traitorous Luther Yahnig. Ron thinks the original V&T could still be running today, proving he knows little about economics and market forces. He's a charter member of the Cecil Dunn Fan Club.
Project Attorney Mike Rowe is a popular lawyer in the Carson Valley. As of June 3, 2008, a Nevada Appeal article identified him as "Minden attorney Mike Rowe, who serves as counsel to both the town of Gardnerville and the Gardnerville Ranchos district board."
They conveniently forgot to mention his position as contract attorney to the Nevada Commission for the Reconstruction of the Virginia and Truckee Railway. Mike Rowe and Bob Hadfield both serve the Town of Minden.
Mike Rowe's most famous quote was when he received a public records request, "I ignored the request."
Nice try but IMHO you misrepresented attorney-client privilege, misquoted a 9th Circuit case and dithered.
My main gripe with Bob Hadfield is he doesn't seem to understand Open Meeting Law. My understanding is that the structure of Commission agendas requires opening each agenda item for public comment. He didn't allow public comment on the NNRF report at the 10/06/08 meeting. The Commission is not above the law.
Bob is basically Mr. Politics in Nevada. I don't have anything too negative to say about Bob, just that he's a little laid back for a project of this magnitude. As Chairman he's the Captain of the ship responsible for all the Commissions foibles and failures. He sets the agenda, right?
Bob does a good job reining in Ron Allen's dream of running the V&T Recon trains. He oversaw the recent decision to sell the five decrepit passenger cars in Portola after the Commission spent $50,000 on them and Ron Allen wanted to spend $25,000 more to study them. Good work Bob.
He does like to interrupt people during public comment and correct them, but I think I may have cured him of that. He still needs to learn that public comment is free speech and is not to be limited outside the NRS.
Commissioner Marv -- What can I say about Mayor Marv that hasn't already been said? He's the famous two-time mayor of Carson City. Marv is here in the Gallery because only he and Ron Allen have been around this project since 1993.
Marv likes to get Harry Reid's Federal money but doesn't like the responsibility and public accountability that goes along with it.
Mayor Marv gets indignant and insolent when anyone challenges his superior knowledge of what's best for Carson City. He's the most responsible for seeing Carson pay $21 million and asking for another ten mil while other counties get off the hook.
Marv, you are playing in a public sandbox! This is not your property, this is a public project.
Marv will retire as mayor but is involved in an effort to add two seats to the Commission for the NNRF and Carson City. We all fully expect Mayor Marv to stay on the Commission by taking this new CC seat.
Mayor Marv works with the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation on efforts to pass the November ballot measure and add two seats to the Commission.
Ron's Allen's main qualification is running a slow train around a short loop at the Carson City Nevada State Railroad Museum. How this qualifies him to run a mountain railroad operation with steep grades and tight curves is beyond me.
He is a Commissioner as a result of his membership in the Virginia Truckee Secret Railroad Society, as called for in state law. This 501(c)(3) group does little or nothing to educate the public or raise money for the Commission. The membership is a closely guarded secret and they hold no public meetings. This alone has given him his fifteen-year tenure on the Commission. I guess no one else from the VTHRS wants to serve.
Ron Allen is a poster-child for term limits. He suffers from being smug when he is also wrong, a dangerous combination. Recently he misused a letter from the Attorney General to claim the Commission is perfectly innocent, when the letter said no such thing.
Ron has "abused the truth" with me a few times and I don't trust him any farther than I can throw him. To be removed from the Rogue's Gallery he'd have to resign his Commission seat.
Mike Rowe, to my knowlege, has been on the job since the start in 1993. He is here in the Rogue's Gallery because he oversees every action by the Commission that flouts state law.
My favorite example is how he spent four months telling Kevin Ray not to give me the proposals submitted by the Durango & Silverton and Sierra Railroads. These proposals were used to disqualify the Gray's REAL V&T from operating the Commission's train, per the contract between the Commission and the Grays Virginia and Truckee Railroad.
So after four months of stonewalling my public records requests, he finally realized he could redact a few pages and release the rest of the qualifications documents.
It's often said by Chairman Hadfield that Mike Rowe gives lots of free time to the Commission. Somehow he was out of free time when he admittedly ignored Dennis Johnson's public records request instead of forwarding it to Kevin Ray or simply answering with a no.
It's hard to say anything with certaintly about Mike Rowe, you know, for every four lawyers there's seven opinions!