At least one new member will take a seat on the Reno City Council come January, a panel that was bound to look different regardless of the results of this year’s election.
Brandi Anderson overwhelmingly won a seat representing the city’s newest ward following redistricting efforts that began several years ago and were completed in 2023.
Previously, Reno’s city council was composed of seven members — five ward members, one at-large member and the mayor. The mayor and at-large member were elected by all Reno voters; voters would then also vote for a candidate to represent the ward in which they live.
With redistricting, the boundaries of the five wards were redrawn to create a sixth ward, and there will no longer be an at-large council member. Instead, each council member will represent a different ward with the goal of reducing the number of constituents each serves and making council members more responsive to the community’s needs.
The redistricting followed the passage of AB36, a bill signed into law in 2017 following recommendations by the Reno City Charter Committee, a committee appointed by members of the Reno City Council and Nevada Legislature.
Mayor Hillary Schieve, Ward 2 representative Naomi Duerr and Ward 4 representative Meghan Ebert were not up for re-election.
Of the four seats open on the panel, two have clear winners, while the remaining were still too close to call Friday as there are thousands of ballots still to be processed in Washoe County.
Ward 1
Small-business owner Kathleen Taylor and challenger Frank Perez, a current city employee, are separated by less than 300 votes in their race to represent Ward 1.
Taylor, who is ahead, is the owner of a small business that develops plans for transportation and infrastructure projects and previously served as an at-large member on the Reno Planning Commission. She was appointed by the council in 2022 to fill a vacant seat in Ward 5 in northwest Reno. Because of the city’s redistricting, portions of Ward 5 are now Ward 1.
Perez, who works as a code compliance officer for the City of Reno and previously managed the city’s neighborhood revitalization program, ran on a platform focused on community safety and opportunities for seniors. Reno’s charter does not allow elected officials to simultaneously hold another position within the city.
Ward 3
Incumbent Miguel Martinez bested newcomer Denise Myer in Ward 3, an area that houses the Wells Avenue Business District and neighborhoods around the Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Martinez was appointed to his position on the council in 2022; prior to serving on the council, he spent seven years at Truckee Meadows Community College as a recruiting coordinator.
Myer, who ran on a platform focused on supporting small businesses and expanding the city’s police force, served as an internal safety auditor for a major airline for several years. She has ties to Robert Beadles, a prominent Republican donor and election conspiracy theorist — Beadles backed Myer in 2022 when she ran an unsuccessful campaign for county commissioner.
Ward 5
Incumbent Devon Reese and newcomer Brian Cassidy are separated by roughly 400 votes, with Reese currently in front.
Reese, who works as an attorney, was appointed to the council’s at-large seat in 2019. In 2020, he ran for re-election and won. Cassidy, owner of Junk King Reno, a junk removal service, was backed by a political action committee affiliated with Beadles.
Whoever wins will take over the ward seat previously held by Taylor.
Ward 6
The newly created Ward 6, which encompasses southeast Reno by Longley Lane and Veterans Parkway, will be represented by Anderson.
She is a small-business owner and marketing consultant who previously ran unsuccessfully for Reno City Council in 2010.
Anderson defeated Tom Heck, who served 22 years in the U.S. Air Force and is now retired. In 2022, he threw his hat in the ring as the Republican candidate for governor of Nevada, receiving just under 2 percent of the vote in the primary election.
