The June 8, 2022 IVGID Board Meeting will go down in the annals of Incline Village history as a day of infamy. At the opening public comment, IVGID Trustee Sara Schmitz was ridiculed by a former Trustee, Peter Morris, for lacking the mental capacity to be a Trustee and for being an “agitator”.  Chair Callicrate made no objection to these comments even though he had told the public at the prior Board meeting that character assassination “would not be tolerated”. Instead, he chastised members of the public for audibly objecting to Morris’ personal attack. Not surprising after learning from Trustee Schmitz’s spouse at the 5/26 meeting that Chair Callicrate had tried to stifle her voice and the information she shares through her newsletter and voted against reappointing her to the Audit Committee. Trustee Schmitz is the most competent and dedicated Trustee our community has elected in years. She was the first Trustee in over a decade to actually take on her responsibility of oversight as defined in the NRS. She spent more hours working as a Trustee than most of IVGID’s full time employees, relentlessly fulfilling her campaign promises to bring transparency and accountability to IVGID while keeping a civil and respectful demeanor.

During the meeting, Trustee Schmitz endured verbal abuse, not just from Mr. Morris, but also from “Dr. Bill” Mathis a consultant recruited by the GM and Board Chair Callicrate and awarded contracts totaling over $50,000 to bring more cohesive practices to the IVGID Board and management. What he did at the meeting was far from a unifying approach. Instead, he singled out Trustee Schmitz and, in what appeared to be violations of the Open Meeting Law, discussed her health and strayed from the agenda. He stated that she objected to him writing her GM evaluation while 3 other trustees had agreed to it. Several Trustees noted that they would not have written what he wrote and had not been given any opportunity to review the evaluations before they appeared in the Board packet. Trustee Schmitz was so taken aback by the evaluation he attributed to her that she refused to participate further in the process. The process was never agreed upon by the Board in a public meeting and clearly violated the Open Meeting Law on a number of points. The majority of the GM’s evaluation was done by a serial poll, not by an open discussion at a public meeting.

Mr. Callicrate introduced the agenda item by asking Dr. Bill for his “plan of attack”. Was that inadvertent? Dr. Bill’s opening comment displayed his bias against Trustee Schmitz. He said how he was so pleased that he had not heard the contentious remarks he was expecting during IVGID meetings. Apparently personal attacks that he agreed with (like the comments from Peter Morris) were perfectly acceptable. Dr. Bill handed out a list of 10 items, most of which had nothing to do with the GM’s evaluation. He then went in to a 25 minute lecture on his view of the role of the Board as well as the Board Chair. Neither Chair Callicrate nor IVGID’s General Counsel Nelson made any attempt to bring the discussion back to the agenda item being considered, the GM’s performance evaluation. Dr. Bill criticized Trustee Schmitz for usurping the GM’s time, and violating what he deemed to be the role of the Board: to “set policy, not to do”. Dr. Bill resides in California and apparently has no familiarity with NRS 318.175  Management of district’s business; acquisition and operation of projects.  The board shall have the power:

      1.  To manage, control and supervise all the business and affairs of the district.

      2.  To acquire, improve, equip, operate and maintain any district project.

Next, Trustee Wong joined the assault, saying she “had to go on record” criticizing Trustee Schmitz for not participating in the evaluation, even though Wong and other Trustees had already delegated the bulk of this responsibility to a consultant!

It was horrific to watch as what appeared to be a lynch mob attack Trustee Schmitz and then award the GM a 3 percent merit increase on top of a 9.5% cost of living increase. The merit increase would have been 4% had Trustee Dent not asked for this small concession.

This action should be reversed and placed on a future agenda, once a clear process for the GM’s evaluation is developed and approved by the Board at a future meeting, not by a serial poll. Dr. Bill should be told his divisive services are no longer required. The Nevada AG should be asked to investigate this orchestrated attack on our Trustee.