Incline residents: General Improvement District board too secretive

A group of Incline Village residents Friday called on their legislators to fix state law so there’s more public oversight of the Incline Village General Improvement District.

IVGID provides most of Incline’s local government services but some residents have complained they’re unable to get any real accountability for how the district runs.

Frank Wright complained an IVGID employee illegally sold a parcel district-owned land that was supposed to be held for open space without getting board approval or a public bid.

But he and others attending the meeting at the Incline Village Library told state Sen. Ben Kieckhefer and Assemblywoman Lisa Krasner they can’t get access to the IVGID books to see what’s going on.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “We have one gentleman who controls our books. We can’t get inside those books.”

Judy Miller said she asked to see the IVGID chart of accounts: “We were told we couldn’t see the chart of accounts.”

She said NRS 318, which contains state laws governing the creation and operation of improvement districts needs “a complete overhaul.”

“Other agencies say they cannot sell public lands without consent of the public body,” she said. “Not in IVGID.”

She also said when they asked for emails, they were told they’re destroyed after 30 days and weren’t available.

“That’s not true,” said IVGID General Manager Steve Pinkerton.

Kieckhefer and Krasner, both Republicans, promised to work on legislative changes that could provide more oversight of the district’s operations.

Kieckhefer said the first challenge will be to figure out exactly what’s happening and what the problem is.

“One thing we don’t do a good job of at the Legislature is accurately identifying the problem we’re trying to solve,” he said.

He also cautioned any changes they make to state statute must have general application to improvement districts, which are numerous particularly in western Nevada.

Krasner said both of them are there to hear the concerns of Incline residents and bring a bill to the 2019 Legislature to fix things. She too said they first have to know what needs to be fixed.

Pinkerton said he’s willing to meet with them any time to discuss the situation.

But Wright called on Kieckhefer to bring people like himself, “the ones who are being shut out,” into the discussions. He said he has.

Gail Krolick of Alpine Realty, a former IVGID board member, called for a “forensic audit” of the district’s books and operations to determine the facts before acting.

Kieckhefer said a community forum would help focus on what needs to be done and they, as Incline’s legislative representatives, would work with the community to develop appropriate legislation.