IVGID Board of Trustees discuss budget goals, transparency
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The Incline Village General Improvement District Board of Trustees met on Wednesday to discuss a number of items related to the district’s budget.
The board received multiple presentations regarding the second quarter budget, including updates on the general financials of the district as well as the capital improvement project progress.
“The district has recorded revenues of $28.2 million dollars through the second quarter which is 37% of … the amended budget for the district,” said Director of Finance Paul Navazio.
Chairman Matthew Dent specially requested that staff bring back a budget that sees a decrease in spending that he stated he’s requested for eight budget cycles.
“I would like to see a budget with an actual decrease,” said Dent, “where the costs aren’t going up every year. Hasn’t happened one time … I don’t think this board is opposed to spending money where we need to spend money, but I think it would be awesome to truly have a really tight budget.”
Other presentations the board received included a general overview of work being done at a federal level by federal legislative advocate Marcus Faust in order to receive funds for projects including the Effluent Pipeline Project, among others. The Fleet division also gave an overview of their general duties and responsibilities in the division.
During the budget workshop, the board discussed their priorities as a district, to which Trustee Sara Schmitz asserted that it’s important that each sector of IVGID have clear goals and plan moving forward. The idea of hiring a management consulting team was suggested by Schmitz, which would help prioritize goals and put together a solid plan for each sector of the district, ranging from beaches to public works to recreation and programming.
While Public Works seems to have a much more put together plan of action, there are other sections of the district that still need planning, including the beaches, golf, the recreation center, and the implementation of new initiatives at Diamond Peak.
“All of these things do need to fit together,” said Schmitz.
Dent requested that the item related to a Flashvote survey for the Incline Beach House be moved to another meeting due to Flashvote training that the board is scheduled to take this week. Following the training, they will be able to further discuss the wants and needs of the survey.
The consent calendar, with only one item related to Board Policy 3.1, passed after Trustee Ray Tulloch initially pulled the item from the calendar due to further amendments he wanted to make to the policy. Tulloch said that certain committees should be held to open meeting law in order to provide full transparency to the community.
General Manager Indra Winquest explained that transparency through the meetings of committees is provided through minutes taken, and if the move to open meeting law was made, it would take up significant staff time.
Ultimately, the board decided to pass the policy through with the original edits only.
The meeting concluded with discussion of redactions of public records requests. Tulloch argued that asserting redactions in the public records requests would mean the district wasn’t being fully transparent, even though according to General Counsel Josh Nelson, the information is subject to attorney-client privilege.
“We have construed privilege as narrow as possible to protect the district in my opinion,” said Nelson. “We think it’s important that the district has the ability to receive confidential legal advice.”
Ultimately, the board chose to assert privilege and take no action on the item.
To learn more and watch the entire meeting visit http://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/meetings-and-agendas.
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