Map provided by Carson City showing the location of the Plateau Townhomes.
Carson City will have a new city manager come July 1. The Board of Supervisors on Thursday unanimously approved a two-year agreement with Glen Martel with a starting annual base pay of $228,948.95 plus a 5 percent raise in 2026.
“Thank you, again, to the board, for your support and confidence and your selection,” Martel told supervisors.
Martel will replace Nancy Paulson, who has been with the city for 26 years and is retiring June 30.
According to the agreement, the board may conduct a public performance review but isn’t required to. Martel will be required to meet individually with board member on or before June 30 each year for feedback.
After his two years are up, the agreement will continue on a month-to-month basis until a new contract is in place or “unless either party elects to terminate Martel’s employment as city manager by notifying the other party in accordance with this agreement.”
Glen MartelMartel will be an at-will employee.
“Although the board may terminate Martel at any time, with or without cause, the board shall, as a courtesy to Martel, provide not less than 90 calendar days’ notice to Martel if the termination is without cause unless the board decides to provide severance pay pursuant to Section 9.3 of this agreement in lieu of providing notice,” reads the contract.
The aforementioned severance pay would be 90 days of base pay plus applicable benefit contributions.
In his career that included engineering and executive positions, Martel has been chief executive officer for the Nevada Builders Alliance as well as city manager of Live Oak, Texas. He also served in the Nevada Air National Guard/U.S. Air Force for nearly four decades, earning the rank of brigadier general.
Dan Yu, assistant district attorney, said Martel was a breeze to work with. Yu said the contract puts the city and Martel on solid ground.
“In my view, as a professional, the best contract possible is not something that is lopsided, that’s unfair for one party over another party,” Yu said. “I think it’s best for the community, for the incoming employee and for my clients, which is the Board of Supervisors, to kind of kick things off in the best position possible for the employer and their employee, to establish that foundation, that relationship, from day one.”
Mayor Lori Bagwell said the new city manager is “off to a good start.”
In other action:
• Supervisors convened as the Redevelopment Authority and unanimously approved using $1.7 million from the fiscal year 2025 redevelopment revolving fund for design work of the Carson City Courthouse remodel.
The total project cost has been projected to be $15.3 million, though that was a preliminary estimate. In the final budget process for fiscal year 2026, the Redevelopment Authority allocated $5.675 million in redevelopment funds for the project.
The courthouse is in redevelopment area 1.
Additionally, as part of the consent agenda, supervisors unanimously approved a $1.5 million contract with TSK Architects to provide design and construction support services for the courthouse project.
The courthouse became a priority in 2022 as the city neared a population of 60,000, which requires another justice of the peace. The Clerk-Recorder’s Office is planning to move out of the courthouse and relocate before the 2026 election cycle.
Cameron Gresh, the city’s government affairs liaison, also informed supervisors a bill requiring another district court judge in Carson City did not make it out of the Legislature.
• Supervisors heard Gresh on other bills as lawmakers wrapped up
Nevada’s 83rd session this week.
Carson’s own bill requesting a study on the V&T Railway Commission — exploring the commission’s possible restructuring or elimination — did not survive the session, Gresh reported. He said conversations with lawmakers on the issue will continue.
“They were very respectful and kind when they told us that while they understand the need, they felt this was a conversation we could still have on the record without a formal study,” Gresh said.
Gresh said the city will be part of interim committee sessions heading into the 2027 session, “which, by that point, we are hoping to be armed with a legislative solution to the V&T Railway, to either help it run more effectively or really kind of any other change to its operations the Legislature may deem necessary.”
• As part of the consent agenda, supervisors unanimously approved a proposed settlement of all claims made by Rose Whitson against Carson City for an amount not to exceed $150,000.
The report says the city’s insurers will help cover the costs, and the city will pay $91,500 toward the settlement.
• As part of the consent agenda, supervisors approved a request from the Carson City Treasurer’s Office to waive $113,405 in parking ticket fines and late fees from fiscal year 2010 to fiscal year 2024.
The annual costs of debt collection would have exceeded the revenues generated from parking fines and fees, Treasurer Andrew Rasor explained in a staff report.
• Supervisors unanimously approved moving administration and maintenance of the Downtown Neighborhood Improvement District to the city.
Supervisors established the DNID in 2016 “to assess property owners to help pay for the ongoing maintenance of the Downtown Streetscape Enhancement Project improvements,” according to a staff report.
The same year, the city entered an agreement with the Carson City Downtown Neighborhood Improvement District, a nonprofit corporation, for the nonprofit to manage the DNID. But in April, the president of that organization’s board notified the city they would not be renewing the agreement.
Upon hearing no objections, supervisors approved a resolution and then the first reading of an ordnance effecting the change.
The city currently administers the South Carson Neighborhood Improvement District, which was created in 2021.
“Consistent with Ordinance No. 2023-7, if the city administers the DNID, an administration fee of 10 percent of the actual expenditures must be paid to the city,” according to the staff report.
• Supervisors voted 4-1 in favor of the first reading of an ordinance establishing a planned unit development (PUD) for 240 townhomes on a 22-acre site north and west of Morgan Mill Road — a project in east Carson known as the Plateau Townhomes.
The ordinance, if approved on second reading, will change the site’s zoning from multifamily apartment and public regional to multifamily-PUD and would establish a tentative subdivision map for the homes. The project would include roughly eight acres of common area to be maintained by a homeowners association.
On April 30, the Carson City Planning Commission unanimously recommended approval of the PUD. Conditions of approval included the requirement of a vegetation management plan. A section of proposed common area on the north side of the site would remain natural vegetation, and commissioners felt a vegetation management plan would mitigate wildfire potential.
“I do know that we have concerns related to high density and things of that nature,” Associate Planner Heather Manzo told supervisors. “I did do some calculations just on the 17 acres currently zoned multifamily apartment…and what they’re proposing is about half of what the potential could be, so this planned unit development will lock in the density and design of this request.”
Supervisor Maurice White voted against the ordinance, objecting to a zoning change outside the city’s annual master plan review.
“Secondly, the addition of yet another road to our already problematic road system here in Carson City,” he said.
According to a staff report for the April 30 Planning Commission hearing, the townhome project includes 637 parking spaces, with 480 garage spaces, 118 guest parking spaces and “an additional 39 on-street parallel parking spaces planned along one side of the future new public road abutting the site’s western boundary.”
“A traffic signal is anticipated to be partially installed at Highway 50 and Drako Way with the first phase of the single-family residential project that is currently under construction in the area,” according to the report. “The proposed conditions include a requirement to provide a signal warrant analysis prior to a site improvement permit being issued and to complete the signal if signal warrants are met.”