Carson City board to deal with budget, Capitol Mall

Carson City’s Board of Supervisors is doing double duty next week, setting the stage both for imminent action and for next fiscal year.

On Monday, in a largely pro forma but certainly significant special meeting, the board will hold a public hearing and then pass the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 budget. July 1 is the first day of FY16. The total budget is for more than $135 million and the general fund portion, the part backed by city sales and property taxes as main revenue sources, is for nearly $68 million. The budget was crafted earlier by city staff and the board.

That Monday session on the spending guide begins at 10 a.m. in the Sierra Room at the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

On Thursday in the same location, among various items set during the regular meeting beginning at 8:30 a.m. is selection of two members for vacancies on the city’s Planning Commission. There are six applicants for the slots on the seven-member commission.

One is due to the death of Malkiat Dhami, the other because Kent Steele resigned earlier this week citing personal reasons. Interviews of applicants and the board’s choices come later in the day’s meeting after a lunch break from which the mayor and supervisors are expected to return at 1:30 p.m.

The applicants seeking to become commissioners are Daniel Salerno, an architect; Clint Hinds, a civil engineering intern and student; Monica Green, a registered nurse; Gary Borst, a realtor; Jaswinder Dhami, hotel developer and owner; and Aaron Sims, who’s in sales and a lobbyist.

The selections will precede a Planning Commission meeting the following Wednesday, which is on May 27, at which a proposed private sector Capitol Mall North development near the Carson Nugget casino is to be reviewed.

The project, which would require upwards of $120 million from investors, envisions a hotel, technology conference center, office and retailing space, some open community space and two parking garages.

This coming Wednesday evening, meanwhile, is when the Carson Nugget casino’s ballroom spokesmen for the development meet with downtown business people whose properties are near the planned mall.

A presentation on it and a question/answer period are scheduled. The private sector session at mid-week comes between the two Board of Supervisors government meetings and is expected to start at 6:30 p.m.

Matt MacRitchie of the Chicago area MacCompany’s and Carson City Center Development, LLC, will be on hand with a local representative of Manhard Consulting, the firm who prepared documents on the plan along with the request to the Planning Commission for the mall special use permit that are up for review by commissioners a week later.

City staff also will be at the Nugget ballroom session to help field questions.