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Reno Public Radio is providing coverage of several local and state political races for this year's elections.For a look at national elections, NPR has provided special online coverage. Click here to see those stories.

In Reno's Ward 2 race, candidates disagree on water, firefighters

Three seats are up for grabs on the Reno City Council this November. One of those is for Ward 2, which covers much of South Reno and the area south of Midtown.  

    

Both Elisa Cafferata and Naomi Duerr are political newcomers. Because neither has a voting record—and both recognize the need to reduce the debt, foster economic development and revitalize Reno—much of the race comes down to credentials.

Cafferata is a name familiar in Nevada politics. She’s the daughter of former State Treasurer Patty Cafferata and granddaughter of former Congresswoman Barbara Vucanovich.

“The fact that I have a wide diversity of experiences will be really helpful in dealing with the huge number of issues the city council has to deal with. I worked for Regional Planning for seven years.”

She also lobbies for women’s health issues as the CEO of Nevada Advocates for Planned Parenthood Affiliates. She’s received the endorsement of Governor Brian Sandoval and the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, among others. She’s a proponent of Reno’s start-up/tech community and "Smart Growth."

Cafferata’s opponent, Duerr, points to her work on water issues and regional planning, particularly as the head of the Truckee River Flood Project—a joint effort among local governments and stakeholders.

She notes every decision made on that board required a unanimous vote.

“That is, build a project, approve a budget, buy a piece of land, you name it, we had to agree 100%, so what I had an opportunity to do was meet with the various individuals to find that common ground and to get over 500 unanimous votes.”

Consensus building is the driving message behind Duerr’s campaign. By the way, that’s spelled D-U-E-R-R, but it's often worked into her slogan “Elect A Doer.”  The Reno Firefighters Union, Sheriff Mike Haley and State Senator Debbie Smith are some of those who’ve endorsed her. While the race is nonpartisan, the Washoe Democrats are also pushing for her to be elected.

Cafferata has also worked on the Flood Project and questions why Duerr touts that as such an accomplishment. During her time there, Cafferata says the budget was only $250 million. That changed, she says, when Duerr took charge.

“Under her watch, the budget grew to $1.6 billion with a local tax bill of half a billion dollars. That would be fine it the project were getting done. But it isn't done.”

But Duerr flatly rejects this characterization, calling it "full of lies." She says that number was not a budget, but a wish list, and they eventually dropped the idea of a tax. She adds that Cafferata helped develop that same wish list.

Duerr says her track record, in fact, demonstrates her ability to get things done under budget.

Whoever is elected, she'll have plenty of tough decisions to make about the city’s finances. Reno still has more than $500 million in debt and recently lost a federal grant that was paying for dozens of firefighters. The local union then sued to prevent layoffs.

Cafferata says reuniting the city and county’s fire departments would be a massive undertaking but believes certain functions can be consolidated. She’d also like the union contracts to have more flexibility, so not all fire crews need to have 4 firefighters, for example.

“A downtown highrise is a completely different emergency than a wildland fire. The idea that you have to pick a number like 3 or 4 seems to me, well, not smart government.”

In contrast, Duerr says the size of a crew isn't the real problem.

“A lot of people want to make this about a 4-person or 3-person crew, and I think, in some ways, that's a red herring. That's not really the conversation we should be having. We should be [discussing]: How do we best deploy our resources? How do we best train our staff so it requires the least amount of response?"

She says the firefighters' endorsement of her doesn’t mean she’ll back all of their positions, though.

So far, Duerr has raised close to 100,000 dollars with money coming from labor groups, local democrats and the casino industry. Cafferata, on the other hand, has received about 45,000 dollars, but some names on that list jump out, like Congressman Mark Amodei, Mayor of Sparks Geno Martini, and Reno mayoral hopeful Ray Pezonella.

To get this far, the two beat out 4 others in the primary.

Listen to the full response from both candidates on how they'd address Reno's debt:

Duerr:

Duerr_on_debt.mp3

Cafferata:

cafferatta_on_debt.mp3

Will Stone is a former reporter at KUNR Public Radio.