INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — Tempers flared again as the Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees discussed changing the make-up of the audit committee.

During their last few meetings the audit committee has been discussing the change to Policy 15.1.0. The change would remove one of the trustees from the board and add three members of the public.

The policy change was brought to the board in April but the board voted to send it back to the audit committee to be tweaked a little more.

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During the approval of the agenda, Trustee Peter Morris asked that the policy change discussion be removed from the agenda so that the board could have time to review the red-lined document because it had not been included in the board agenda packet, just the audit committee packet.

The board voted 4-1 to move forward with the discussion.

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When that agenda item came up, Morris spent well over an hour going through the document page by page with Trustee Sara Schmitz, who authored the new policy.

Morris and Schmitz remained calm until Schmitz made a small joke and in response, Morris expressed frustration. Civility broke down when Schmitz asked Trustee Matthew Dent to clarify one of the points in the document that he had worked on, at which point, Morris implied he thought Schmitz and Dent met out of quorum, breaking open meeting laws.

Dent bristled at the accusation and Chairman Tim Callicrate stepped in, admonishing Morris for taking up the board’s time.

Trustee Kendra Wong later stepped in to say Schmitz had ignored the changes she’d sent, although it was unclear whether the changes were in regards to Policy 15.1.0 or the Charter as a whole, which wasn’t being discussed at the time.

Schmitz agreed to make Morris’ changes but Morris and Wong still voted against the policy change. It still passed with Callicrate, Dent and Schmitz voting yes.

The board plans to solicit applications for the at-large audit committee members by June 1 and hopes to appoint the members by July 15.

The board was also given a presentation by Interim General Manager Indra Winquest and Financial Director Paul Navazio about criteria they’ve chosen to move forward with or delay capital improvement projects amid economic uncertainty.

They will move forward with projects that involve health and safety or critical infrastructure.

Schmitz said she’d like to see the staff also place priority on internal controls initiatives and Wong said she’d prefer no projects get canceled, rather just deferred.

One project that does not fall under that category is the bocce ball courts. However, because the project was popular with residents and came in under budget, Winquest recommended moving forward with it. The board voted to approve going forward.

The board also approved the scope of work for effluent export pipeline and pond lining projects as well as approving the board to go out Request for Qualifications on the projects.

In a past meeting, the board had agreed to have Wong and Dent work with Winquest and Director of Public Works Joe Pomroy to create the scope of work.

During Wednesday’s discussion, Wong said she was happy with the process, saying they worked hard to consider all the trustee’s concerns and priorities and created a scope of work that reflected those as best they could.

Dent also said that even though not everyone’s preferences were included, he was also pleased with the process.

“We sought community input on this from people who currently work in this arena, people retired from this arena or people who work in the public works side of the arena,” Dent said, adding that he couldn’t take credit for the finished product.

The board also decided to move forward with a construction project audit and an internal control review.

Finally, they approved to expand the scope of service with the legal firm Best, Best, and Krieger.