Last year, local Republicans led a campaign to defund Washoe County libraries. A new investigation reveals an apparent financial relationship between an organizer and a member of the library board.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include an emailed statement from Trustee Gianna Jacks.
Update, March 3, 2024, at 12:13 p.m. PT
As KUNR was preparing to publish last week’s story on a series of public Venmo payments linking library board Trustee Gianna Jacks and anti-LGBTQ+ activist Nichelle Hull, the station’s email client incorrectly sent an emailed response from Jacks to the junk folder.
Reporter Bert Johnson sent an interview request and list of questions detailing what would appear in the story to Jacks, Nichelle Hull, and Chloe Hull on Monday, Feb. 24, at 4:15 p.m. The original deadline to respond was Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 5 p.m.
Nichelle Hull declined an interview request, and Chloe Hull never replied, but Jacks asked for an extra day via text message. KUNR granted Jacks’ request for an extension as a courtesy, and gave her until Thursday, Feb. 27, at noon.
She emailed a written statement on Thursday at 10:58 a.m. — just over an hour before the extended deadline. But Jacks used a different email address than KUNR had originally contacted her on, so the message was flagged as junk. As a result, it wasn’t included in the original story.
Here is Jacks’ statement in full:
“Bert first of all I’ve done nothing wrong . There’s no connection or correlation of any kind between a homeschool program and any other activity on any government board. It’s an obviously public account so no one’s hiding anything and I appreciate your concern .Thank you. Gianna Jacks as herself. Feb 27, 2025 11am
happy tax season. Best, Gianna”
Jacks appears to be referring to a so-called homeschool co-op Nichelle Hull operated in conjunction with her political activism. According to an archived capture of the Wake Up Washoe County website, Hull was advertising such a service in Reno as late as Dec. 14, 2024.
Original story, published Feb. 28, 2025, at 11:23 a.m. PT
Last April, Nichelle Hull attended a contentious library board meeting to support a group of conservative activists, who demanded that trustees reshelve more than a dozen books — most of which featured LGBTQ+ authors and themes.
“I'm representing Wake Up Washoe County this evening, and I'm representing the folks that did the book challenges,” she said during the meeting’s first public comment period.
Later, Trustee Gianna Jacks, who was chair of the board at the time, allowed Hull to speak again. But this time, it was outside of normal public comment, and Hull spoke on behalf of the activists who’d filed the book challenges — even though she hadn’t filled one out herself.
According to Deputy District Attorney Herb Kaplan, the board’s legal advisor, Jacks’ decision was out of step with procedure.
“Generally, it is the person who has presented the, or submitted the challenge, who would provide whatever…” he began, before Jacks interrupted.
“I'm calling her up next,” she said, referring to Hull. “Sorry, just for the presentation on the original letter that was submitted.”
“So I think the question is, what exactly are you calling Ms. Hull up to do?,” Kaplan asked.
A new investigation by KUNR found that two days prior to the meeting, Hull received a payment bearing Jacks’ first name on her public Venmo account. Library leadership and community organizers say the apparent financial relationship puts Jacks’ motives into question, and could violate ethics rules for public officials.
Library Director Jeff Scott reviewed screenshots of more than two-dozen payments to Hull under Jacks’ name for this story.
“That's a lot,” he said, while laughing ironically. “I think it's clear that you have right wing money influencing the board, which is against the trustee code.”
Last year, KUNR found Jacks had deep connections to the local GOP establishment, and opposed the library’s Drag Story Hour from her seat on the board.
Jacks did not provide comment in time to be included in this story, and Hull declined an interview request. But in December of 2023, they both appeared on the Nevada Radio Roundup, a conservative talk show.
Jacks urged listeners with concerns about the content or programming at public libraries to attend board meetings.
Meanwhile, Hull explained the motivation for her campaign against diverse books and Drag Story Hour to host Shanimal Lawson.
“You look at the cover of the book? Looks just fine! You read the inside of the cover? Sounds just great! But then, your kids tell you that, as they get to the middle of the book, or toward the end of the book, ‘Oh, there's this entire storyline that's, like, inappropriate, you know?’ It's LBGTQ+ [sic]...”
“X, Y, Z,” interjected Lawson, mocking the acronym that includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning as part of a broader series of gender and sexual minorities.
“X, Y, Z,” Hull agreed. “And that was hidden.”
Hull filed Wake Up Washoe County’s book challenges later that month. Then, in January 2024, public records show she invited Jacks to a birthday party for Chloe Hull, who appears to be Nichelle Hull’s daughter.
It was Chloe Hull’s Venmo account that sent the 26 payments labeled “Gianna money.”
It’s not clear how much money changed hands, because Venmo doesn’t publicly display transaction amounts. Regardless, Stacey Spain said the payments are cause for concern.
“It just doesn't pass the smell test for me,” she explained.
Spain is executive director of Our Center, an LGBTQ+ community hub in Reno that used to organize Drag Story Hour at the library, and now hosts the events in private locations around the Truckee Meadows.
Spain was at the board meeting last April, and saw Hull and her allies argue for moving diverse books to a restricted part of the library. If the board had supported the idea, it would have been akin to censorship, she said.
“It makes it so that folks might not wish to ask to see those books. And it is, in effect, making them unavailable for folks,” Spain said.
Hull’s library activism seems to be over, at least for now.
But over the summer, county officials canceled Drag Story Hour, after they said an employee was hurt by a protester. And in November, voters rejected a measure to renew a tax set-aside that had funded library services for 30 years.
County commissioners could still restore that funding when they finalize their budget in the spring. But if they don’t, Scott said he’ll have to lay off staff and reduce hours.
Ultimately, he believes the campaign against the library was really about restricting access to information.
“There's nothing pornographic about these books. There's nothing inappropriate about these books. It's just from a voice [they] don't want you to hear,” he said.
