Carson City supervisors to make airport appointment

The Carson City Board of Supervisors is expected to appoint one member to the Airport Authority during its meeting Thursday, which starts at 8:30 a.m. in the community center.

Of the seven members on the board that oversees the airport, one must be a pilot “who owns and operates an aircraft based at the airport,” according to a staff report. The open position is for a pilot for a four-year term.

“Timothy Puliz is seeking reappointment,” reads the report. “New applications were submitted by Scott Hoffmeyer, John Karam and Matthew Bowers.”

Puliz, of Reno, was elected chairman of the authority in June, according to his application for reappointment. He has experience with the Carson City Sheriff’s Office Aero Squadron and the Experimental Aircraft Association, among other organizations.

Hoffmeyer of Carson is retired chief pilot for the Nevada Department of Transportation, according to his applications. Karam of Reno is a commercial airline pilot, flight instructor and mechanic. Bowers of Dayton is a pilot with a background in accounting and computer network engineering.

In other action:

• Supervisors will consider changing the part-time classified position of Carson City Sheriff’s Office administrative assistant to an unclassified full-time position of CCSO administrative officer.

“The 3/4-time position of administrative assistant will become vacant after November due to the retirement of a 31-year employee,” reads a staff report. “This agenda item seeks approval to reclassify the administrative assistant position, currently within the employee organization membership of the Carson City Employees Association and subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), to the FLSA-exempt position of administrative officer that is also exempted from the city's Merit Personnel System under the Carson City Charter.”

According to a fiscal impact statement, the 2024 budget for the position, including benefits, is $96,228. The change would increase the salary and benefits to $114,848.27.

• Supervisors will consider authorizing a grant application, and any award, from the Carson City Fire Department to the Bureau of Land Management’s Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act Round 20 grant program. CCFD is asking for about $2.8 million for wildfire defense projects in upper Kings Canyon and the Clear Creek area over a six-year period.

No local match would be required.

“If CCFD receives the grant funding proposed for SNPLMA Round 20, those funds will (1) increase wildfire prevention outreach and education to Clear Creek neighborhood, (2) implement 600-768 acres of hazardous fuel mitigation treatments and (3) develop wildfire mitigation/response crews to effectively address high risk dangers, and complete larger fuel mitigation projects, to reduce the threat of potential wildfires within the community,” according to a staff report.

• As part of the consent agenda, supervisors will review a proposed settlement between the city and Travelers Indemnity Co., from which the city would receive $420,000 in exchange for dismissing claims against Travelers.

“In 2019 and 2020, the board authorized settlement of claims by third parties relating to damages sustained by minors as a result of participation in a recreational program administered by Carson City,” reads a staff report.

The staff report lists two settlement payments approved by the board in 2019 and 2020, respectively, for the third-party claims. The city’s portion of the settlements totaled $630,000. As previously reported by the Appeal, the underlying claims against the city stemmed from an incident at the city’s 2016 Camp Carson summer program. During a trip to a bowling alley, a volunteer, also a minor, allegedly molested several minors in the program.

“Carson City was insured by Travelers at the time,” reads the staff report. “A dispute between Carson City and Travelers arose regarding the limits of liability coverage available with respect to the claims.”

In April, in U.S. District Court, the city was granted a partial summary judgment against Travelers of $632,635, which Travelers appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, according to supporting documents released with Thursday’s agenda.

“In the course of that appeal, the parties were ordered to attend mediation. The proposed settlement was negotiated in the course of that mediation,” reads the staff report.

The District Attorney’s Office is recommending approval of the settlement with Travelers.