The Agenda Action Summary is a document prepared by the City Clerk's office listing the results of items discussed during the meeting and does not contain discussion on any item. Comprehensive minutes will be available within 30 days of the meeting See the Summary

The Agenda Action Summary is a document prepared by the City Clerk's office listing the results of items discussed during the meeting and does not contain discussion on any item. Comprehensive minutes will be available within 30 days of the meeting See the Summary

FERNLEY--Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is the guest speaker at the February 16th meeting of the Fernley Republic Women's Club.

FRW members are anticipating a big crowd and thus have booked City Hall at 6:30 p.m. for the meeting.

The Fernley Republican Women is a group of like minded women (and men as associate members), who strive to increase the influence and effectiveness of women in the cause of good government through political education and active political participation."

For more information, call Anita Trone at 775-575-7810, anita@trone.org or Peggy Gray at 775-575-4058, plgray1246@sbcglobal.net.

The City of Fernley is pleased to announce its partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. Through our support of the 2010 Census, we hope to raise awareness and encourage participation in this historic event, and help to ensure a complete and accurate count of Fernley's growing and changing population.

As part of our partnership, we will begin a series of initiatives to help educate the public that census participation is vital to our community and nation. The 2010 Census data will directly affect how more than $400 billion is distributed to state, local and tribal governments. Completing your census form helps ensure that Fernley will get its share of funding for essential services, such as new roads, hospitals, child-care and senior centers, schools and more.

As a city organization that reaches a wide and diverse audience, we will work to communicate the importance of census participation, particularly with hard-to-count populations. We will help raise awareness that every person living in Fernley must be counted. This includes people of all ages, races, ethnic groups, citizens and noncitizens. By law, the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with anyone, including other federal agencies and law enforcement entities. All Census Bureau employees take an oath of nondisclosure and are sworn for life to protect the confidentiality of the data. The penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment of up to five years, or both.

Additionally, we will help to educate the public on key census milestones, including:
• The Census Bureau will mail or deliver census forms to households in March 2010. Households should complete and mail back their responses upon receipt.

•Census Day is April 1, 2010, the official day of the population count. All 2010 Census responses should represent the household as it exists on this day.

•Beginning in late April through July, census workers will visit households that do not return forms to take a count in person. Census workers can be identified by a census badge and bag.

As a city organization, we have a responsibility to ensure every individual in our area has access to this important information. Please let your friends, family and neighbors know about this effort and encourage them to complete and return the 10-question 2010 Census form. And please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding our partnership with the Census Bureau. We move forward when you send it back.

Visit 2010census.gov to learn more.

City of Fernley Contacts:
Leslieann Hayden, Grants Administrator 775-784-9905
Jennifer Derley, GIS Coordinator 775-784-9825 [Additional info...]

The residents of Fernley have a vested interest in seeing Fernley continue to be a place where business and families want to prosper. A key element in achieving this goal is to develop city “branding”. The objective is to come up with a slogan, and graphic icon (image), and a reason why the icon and the image represent Fernley. We plan to build on the work done almost two years ago by city staff. That process never converged on the needed branding exhibits. We are defining a process that will converge. Even though the process is just now being started, we are anxious to get everyone involved, so we are defining a set of nomination rules so that a future judging process can have a uniform set of data from which to select the winner. Anyone interested in helping is welcome to come to the next Citizens Advisory Meeting and contribute. The next meeting is scheduled for February 8, 2010 at 3 PM at City Hall Council Chambers.

Deadline for entries is April 1, 2010. After selecting a winner, the branding (slogan and icon) will be available for use by all citizens to use on their stationary, signs, advertisements etc. In addition, we hope to have entrance signage to the city of Fernley that will dramatically announce us as folks drive through. [Additional info...]

In an effort to increase public awareness about the services, activities and programs please join the City of Fernley on Facebook
and follow us to Twitter .
We hope to use this as another means to get out information about happenings around the City.

In addition to caulking windows, raking leaves and cleaning out gutters, homeowners should put winterizing their home’s water system at the top of their to-do list... [Additional info...]

Notice to all Water Rights Owners
The Justice Department sent out a notice in December to all water right owners about a modification to the Orr Ditch Decree when the Truckee River Operating Agreement (TROA) becomes law. The mailing contained a Notice of Appearance that was to be returned by January 15, 2010. If you, as a water right owner, did not receive the mailing or received it within the last week or two please call the TCID office at 775-423-2141 or 775-575-2211 in Fernley. The office staff will take your name and verify your mailing address. If you know of a water right owner that did not receive the notice please tell them to call the office. It is important that the Notice of Appearance be returned and even more important that all water right owners received the notice and in a timely manner.
Notice

Fernley, NV – November 4, 2009 – On November 3, 2009, a federal appellate court affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of the City of Fernley in a lawsuit suit brought by developer Foothills of Fernley. A lower federal court previously granted summary judgment to the City of Fernley on all relevant issues, essentially dismissing the lawsuit brought by Foothills of Fernley.

Foothills of Fernley’s lawsuit was based on the developer’s claim that it was entitled to water service at an “in-lieu of fee” under an old city ordinance that would have forced the city to provide water service to the developer for a relatively small fee. The current city ordinance, however, requires residential developers intending to connect to the city’s water system to dedicate water rights to the City, which is more expensive than paying the previously allowed in-lieu of fee.

The City of Fernley has maintained its position throughout the life of this lawsuit that Foothills of Fernley was never entitled to water service at an in-lieu of fee. The federal district court agreed and summarily rejected Foothills’ numerous arguments based on federal law. Additionally, the federal district court dismissed Foothills’ state law claims, in part because they were raised after the relevant statute of limitations had expired.

Despite the federal district court’s strong opinion in the City of Fernley’s favor, Foothills of Fernley appealed that decision, and an oral argument on the case was heard by a panel of federal appellate judges in San Francisco on October 8, 2009. That panel issued its decision less than one month later, and essentially affirmed the district court’s order in all respects.

As such, the City of Fernley has prevailed in the lawsuit brought by Foothills of Fernley, and does not have to provide water service to Foothills pursuant to the old in-lieu of fee. If Foothills of Fernley proceeds with its development and requests to be connected to the city’s water system, it must dedicate the necessary amount of water rights to the city, just like any other residential developer operating under the currently existing ordinance.

For more information, contact City Attorney, Paul Taggart at 775-784-9861.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FERNLEY WATER RIGHTS DECLARED VALID

Fernley, NV – October 26, 2009 – On October 22, 2009, a federal court order was released in which Fernley prevailed on numerous motions related to the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe’s Orr Ditch Petition. The Petition challenges a significant amount of water rights on the basis that the rights were forfeited and/or abandoned. Judge George’s order makes clear that water rights owned by Fernley are not subject to the Petition, and as a result, cannot be challenged based on allegations of forfeiture or abandonment.

Multiple motions that were filed by the Tribe were considered by the Court. The motions were denied, and the Court clarified that “Fernley is not a respondent,” to the Petition. This decision makes clear that water rights that were originally subject to the Petition but have been sold by the original owner are not subject to the Petition. Again, any water rights owned by Fernley are not subject to the Petition.

Fernley prevailed in the Petition litigation that began over sixteen years ago. The Tribe sought every means possible to make Fernley’s water rights declared not valid, but a federal court has now made it clear that the Tribe cannot do so. Because Fernley’s water rights are not subject to the Petition, the Tribe cannot validly assert protests based on forfeiture or abandonment to Fernley’s change applications before the State Engineer. Fernley always believed that to be the case, and after reviewing the extensive legal briefs filed by Fernley and the Tribe, the Orr Ditch Court has sided with Fernley.

For more information, contact City Attorney, Paul Taggart at 775-784-9861.
-End-
[Additional info...]

FERNLEY PREVAILS IN FEDERAL COURT
ON WATER EXCHANGE AGREEMENT

Fernley, NV – September 16, 2009 – On July 1, 2009, the City of Fernley entered into a one-year Water Exchange Agreement with the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe. Under the Agreement, in 2009, Fernley will allow 6,088 acre-feet of its surface water rights to flow to the lower Truckee River and Pyramid Lake. In exchange, Fernley will receive a water storage credit of up to 1,826 acre feet for use in the future for service to Fernley customers.

Fernley will also be reimbursed by the Western Regional Water Commission for its Operations and Maintenance Fees payable to the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID) in an amount up to $71,000 because of the water quality benefits to the lower Truckee River resulting from the Water Exchange Agreement.

Despite the facts that Fernley will receive significant benefits from the Water Exchange Agreement and that TCID recently announced an increase for 2009 water deliveries from 90% to 100%, TCID attempted to block Fernley’s temporary transfers of water to the lower Truckee River pursuant to the Water Exchange Agreement. TCID filed a Motion for Stay in the Federal Orr Ditch Court alleging that water users in the Truckee Division would suffer irreparable harm because of Fernley’s temporary transfers and that Fernley would suffer no injury if a stay was granted.

Fernley, the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Nevada State Engineer all opposed TCID’s Motion for Stay. Fernley’s opposition focused on the harm that Fernley, the Tribe, and members of the public would suffer if a stay was granted, the City’s belief that water users in the Truckee Division will not suffer harm as a result of the water exchange agreement, and the likelihood that Fernley would ultimately prevail on the merits of TCID’s Petition for Judicial Review of Fernley’s temporary transfers.

Judge Lloyd D. George, presiding over the Federal Orr Ditch Court, heard oral arguments on TCID’s Motion for Stay on August 10, 2009. Judge George then issued a written Order on September 2, 2009, agreeing with Fernley and denying TCID’s Motion for Stay. The Order found that “staying the State Engineer’s decision will harm Fernley by depriving it of significant benefits it will receive from its changed use of its water rights,” and that “TCID has not shown that it (or the water users to whom it delivers water) will be irreparably harmed by Fernley’s changed use of its water rights . . . .”

Furthermore, the Court found that “TCID has also failed to show that it is likely to succeed on any of those alleged errors” by the State Engineer, and that precluding Fernley from exercising its changed use of its water rights is likely to reduce water quality and should “be considered as a harm suffered by the public.” Significantly, the Court stated that “other than requiring Fernley to shoulder its share of shortage, the farmers (and TCID) do not have a right to require Fernley to not use its water rights.”

As such, Fernley has prevailed in TCID’s attempt to stay the transfer of Fernley’s water rights pursuant to the Water Exchange Agreement, and Fernley will continue to receive the significant benefits of the Agreement. TCID has not reduced its declaration of a 100% water year, and the Orr Ditch Court’s Order serves as further vindication that Fernley is finally reaping the benefits of directing the use of its water rights without injuring other water users in the Truckee Division.
[Additional info...]