INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — The general improvement district Board of Trustees met online Wednesday evening to discuss multiple policies, but the potential change orders to the Mountain Golf Course Path Replacement Project were taken off the agenda by trustees.

Chairperson Tim Callicrate announced before the first rounds of public comments for the night that the item was taken off the agenda prior to the meeting at the request of General Manager Indra Winquest.

The news was followed by an Incline Village golf course update from Director of Golf/Community Services Darren Howard, who shared with the board that the condition of the courses was highly spoken of this season.

“Probably the best thing this year was the condition of both golf courses was just incredible,” said Howard. “And that’s not coming from me, that’s coming from our residents, that’s coming from our guests, our nonresidents.”

Additionally, Howard reported that resident play at the courses made up 70% of the rounds, which could be a result of multiple natural disasters in the basin, including mass evacuations from fires and the reduction of tourism during that time. Additionally, the COVID pandemic continues to impact the course, with food and beverage sales impacted for the second year in a row.

There was discussion on the Burnt Cedar Pool, which is expected to finish on time and under budget, much to the excitement of the board members who have been receiving backlash from the community on other projects, like the Mountain Golf Course project.

“When we have successes, that’s something we need to address,” said Trustee Callicrate. “Just as we need to address when we have mistakes, which we have done, and hopefully the mistakes aren’t continued.”

After voting to pass through the entire consent calendar, which granted an additional amendment to the Public Utility Rate Study, as well as approving the update of template services agreements, the board went on the speak about multiple policies within the board.

The question of Dillon’s Rule was brought up again to the board after a review was requested in September of 2021 about the scope of work within the district that related to policies within the rule.

District General Counsel Joshua Nelson said after seeing many public comments about the scope of Dillon’s Rule and the discussion for the meeting, it was important to specify what policies were in question.

“This review of the personnel policies does not look at any of those issues that are being handled by outside counsel,” said Nelson. “Our issue on the personnel policy is really looking at things like reimbursements, lunches to contractors, and employee celebration type events.”

Nelson shared that after reviewing a number of incredibly outdated policies, it was found that there was some issues that could be delegated to staff to handle on their own, whereas other issues were specifically to be discussed by the board.

“We completed our initial review of the personnel policies,” said Nelson. “Based on that review, we believe the necessary amendments will be made at a staff level, because those policies are actually adopted by Mr. Winquest.”

The discussion then focused around policies in relation to board contributions and work with nonprofits. Nelson said that the policies all complied with Dillon’s Rule, but there was room to update the language and minimize the amount of policies in order to make them more clear and easier to understand.

While Trustee Callicrate was in favor up continuing to work with nonprofits, he also agreed the language of the policies needed to be updated and the board should be aware of the nonprofits being worked with and their impact on the community. 
It was agreed that Nelson would take the notes from the board members and construct an updated version of the policies.

The meeting ended with the election of the officer elections for 2022.

Trustee Sara Schmitz nominated Trustee Matthew Dent for chairperson, but the board voted that down 3-1. The board moved to name Callicrate as chair, Dent as vice chair, Michaela Tonking as treasurer, and Schmitz as secretary with and passed by a 3-1 vote. Schmitz was the dissenting vote.