Incumbent Jenny Brekhus is up for re-election for her Reno City Council seat in Ward 1, which covers a good chunk of downtown. Both of her challengers says she's ineffective, but Brekhus wants proof. Our News Director Michelle Billman reports.
Brekhus is running against Victor Salcido, an attorney, and Rich Van Gogh, who owns an art gallery. They both say she's got to go.
"Jenny Brekhus is a good person, has a great resume, but I don't think she's doing anything," Van Gogh says. "She's also the only one that I see who argues on almost every point that anyone else on the city council tries to work on. You can't get anything done if you're just the devil's advocate."
Van Gogh actually moved to Ward 1 specifically to challenge Brekhus. She says his claim is easy to make but hard to back up.
"Yeah, I have not been ineffective. I came in in 2012 and spent the first eighteen months not sure we weren't going to go into bankruptcy," Brekhus says. "The city had laid off a third of its workforce. We've dug ourselves out over the second part of my term, and we're moving and looking in a forward direction."
Brekhus has support from Mayor Hillary Schieve and Councilman David Bobzien. She also says there's a tracking system for city council assignments that shows she's completed far more of them than her colleagues.
But Victor Salcido's not impressed by that data:
"Each council member will have projects that staff has to research, look into, and 'complete.' That doesn't mean they got voted through and accepted in our law, now."
The three will face-off in next week's primary, and the top two will go to the general election.
