Questions and Answers by Harry Swenson for all questions provided at the IVGID Candidates Forum on September 30, 2024 at Incline High School
Opening Remarks:
I am Harry Swenson a candidate for trustee of the Incline Village/Crystal Bay community. I have lived full-time in this community for 10 years. I have been coming to this beautiful area since the late 1960s. I moved here when I retired from a very successful career as a NASA Scientist and Executive. I developed advanced technologies and managed large projects and budgets more than 100s of millions of dollars for the development of complex technologies. NASA awarded me with 3 medals for both my technical and management acumen. I have contributed my time here over my years here to our Church, Incline Elementary school, Conversation Cafe the 4th of July celebrations with several of our local service organizations and IVGID itself on the IVGID Golf Committee. After the turmoil of the last few years, I want to dedicate my time and energy to making Incline Village the desirable place to live as I remember when I first moved here. I want us to work together for a brighter and more welcoming community.
There are many things we all want from our community and things I feel I am uniquely qualified to address.
Questions and Answers to all that were submitted
1 – Mick Holman’s website states that his goal is to create four new facilities:
a dining facility at Incline Beach
a new Diamond Peak Snowflake Lodge
a Rec Center expansion
and 6 new tennis courts
Estimates are approximately $55 million
How can these expenditures be justified when the 2018 survey results indicated that 68% of the people felt funding priorities should be to improve and take better care of the existing facilities?
In addition, almost 100% of people surveyed were willing to increase the Facility Fee by only $50 to $100 annually. This would only provide less than $800,000 per year.
Ans: I don’t believe going on an improvement spending binge is the right approach considering the financial challenges we are going through. We need to get our financial house in order before even contemplating this level of expenditures. The only exception is the currently approved and budgeted capital investments and of course catching up on any deferred maintenance items. A major exception is getting our Incline Beach facility upgraded appropriately (not with the current $16million design, something closer to the $4 million original estimate). The new board needs to work with the community to create a sustainable strategic plan which may or may not include the above listed wishes, this plan must also include budget and financial plans to ensure its credibility.
2 – As much as locals love the tourist dollars, the excessive crowding and trash have become problematic. Do you have any ideas for resolving these issues?
Ans: My wife and I often walk our neighborhoods picking up trash. We understand the concerns and breadth of the trash problem in our community. As a friend of mine and the person that got us started picking up trash, Ben Dosseff, says “every piece of trash on the ground ends up in the Lake, making it totally polluted.” He believes, and I agree with him, a major effort needs to be education. He has even used his own resources to create signs describing this problem, unfortunately some have been torn down. We have learned this year through environmental analyses of our Lake that microplastics are in our lake at very high levels. We need to expand Mr. Dosseff’s efforts including a broader segment of the community. I would like to partner with our local schools to develop effective educational material and signage to broadly explain this to all our community and visitors.
3 – The current Board of Trustees has burned through a sizable surplus of revenue in the past 18 months. How will you go about restoring financial balance to our community? [ASKED]
Ans: As I indicated at the Candidate Forum, the board has not burned through our revenues, rather what it has done is begin to use the extensive over collection of resources from the community over the years and reduced our Rec Fee to begin to bring us into balance on both the collection and expenditures. I believe we currently have no clue or real understanding of our IVGID finances or costs. I believe that getting our finances and costs in order is the first requirement for the new board. As this is being completed, we need to have monthly status reports of progress until completed. We then need to be transparent with our community and provide a full accounting to the community members in a clear, concise, and understandable way. This will then lead us to a real and transparent understanding of our finances from which the community can discuss how to proceed in the future, and hopefully create a sustainable strategic plan for our community.
4 – Do you believe the venues that our residents own, such as Diamond Peak, golf courses, beaches etc. should be required to ‘stand alone’ financially?
Ans: I believe all our amenities provide both intrinsic and actual value to our community. I personally use almost everyone, except pickle ball. As such, they need to operate as efficiently as possible with the total costs understood and at a value that our community and paying visitors understand. We are very lucky that Diamond Peak has made a profit over the last few years due to excellent management and accommodating snow conditions. As a member of the IVGID Golf Advisory Committee, we felt we provided a good plan forward to lead towards sustainability of the golf courses. I will use the expertise that the Golf Advisory Committee provided to move the courses forward to a more sustainable future. Finally, with community involvement in the development of a sustainable strategic plan we all can understand and hopefully gain consensus on how much we all are willing to pay for our wonderful venues and amenities.
5 - To All Candidates: Please briefly explain if you are for or against hiring a management company (such as Troon) to take over the management duties of Incline Village. If you are in favor, how do you justify the additional cost?
Ans: As many people know when Troon provided an unsolicited proposal to our Director of Human Resources, I read it and made a public comment that I thought it was intriguing. This was in the context of hiring a General Manager with access to professional consulting due to the failure of the traditional approach to hiring a GM about a year earlier. The failure of the traditional hiring was attributed to meanspirited and extremely vocal members of our community contacting the GM candidates with threats and vile actions. These GM candidates contacted the board and withdrew their application, to our loss. This left us without a General Manager for the next 18 months. Also, after the public reaction to the Troon unsolicited proposal, the trustees decided to try again with a general Request for Proposals (RFPs) to accomplish similar functions. What is interesting, is that we received no responses to the RFP, not even from Troon. I find it a bit problematic that top companies that do this type of work won’t even waste their time and resources to make us an offer.
6 – The town seems to be increasingly polarized. What can or should a trustee do to bring us all together?
Ans: First off, speak the truth and lead by example. I have listed the following principles of my campaign Stewardship, Transparency, Accountability, Respect, and Sustainability. I reflect to my NASA roots and call this my STARS tenets. I believe as I hold myself to these principles, I will begin to bring back the trust that the community should have with their Trustees. I have made more friends in my first year as a resident that 30 years during my life in the SF Bay Area. During this campaign I have made many more friends that are beginning to understand the serious issues we are facing as a community. I promise to work very hard and will hold my colleagues similarly accountable to do what is best for our community not pursue any special interest. As my father taught me that in business you need credibility and honesty, or you have nothing. I will bring this philosophy to my trustee position and push it through our local politics.
7 – At the Board’s May 29, 2024 meeting Mr. Homan gave public comment that he was in favor of massive bonding to attend to our aging beach and recreation projects, and doubling or even tripling the Rec Fee to pay for servicing costs on those bonds. The kinds of recreation bonds the District typically issues require voter approval unless 2/3 of our Board vote to dispense with this approval. Never in IVGID’s past has it ever sought voter approval for the recreation bonds it has issued. So with this in mind, I am asking if each candidate will commit here and now to not vote to eliminate voter approval as a pre-requisite to voting in favor of a new beach or recreation bond.
Ans: I believe in getting our residents and voters view before taxing and bonding. The above view reminds me of the classic view a lot of politicians aspire to that “they know what’s good for you”. I reject this view, especially in our small community, thus after discussions with the community with the fully transparent pros and cons, I believe we can trust the community to vote on these critical tax and bond issues. The only possible exception might be the need to raise some emergency funds to fix or repair a major infrastructure problem. I am hoping to use my extensive engineering and management skills to ensure that this will never be the case since I will push to understand and alleviate infrastructure risks prior to any “unforeseen” emergency.
8 – a. Many of the recent discussions by the present trustees have centered on the budget and our limited resources. Our recreation facilities have a long list of deferred capital improvement projects. The next group of trustees will be tasked with developing a Strategic Plan that will need to prioritize these capital improvements and set realistic goals as to when they could be accomplished. What would be your list of priorities and why?
Ans: As you suggest there is a strategic plan that after reading it, it is not a plan but more of general platitudes and a wish list of potential approvements. Our first step in to build a real community strategic plan with a complimentary budget plan to achieve its implementation. Our strategic plan looks more like what I have seen in my 32 years of government as a plan that was created to fill the box, not one that anyone would use. As described on my issues pages of my website I do have some immediate priorities.
I believe that we need to get the long-delayed incline beach house upgraded. The lack of adequate restroom facilities, especially for women and the routine utilization porta potties, I find unacceptable, unsightly, and unsanitary.
· This simple project has been going in circles for many years and has seen the costs grow from $4,000,000 to currently $16,000,000 due to what I believe is gold-plating and not understanding the real needs.
· I plan to ensure the designs are adequate with the priority on restrooms for our needs not a 4-Star level professional kitchen that is only open 4 months, but something safe and usable for our actual needs. We might even want to consider an outdoor kitchen, since the major costs of indoor kitchen is all the fire suppression and venting necessary for indoor kitchens.
Our recreation center is in desperate need of overhaul. I believe we need to provide a two-pronged attack, first address many of the deferred maintenance and safety items and a limited reconfiguration for current needs and activity. Secondly, we need to invest in an overhaul plan with our community input to enhance our Recreation Center for our current and future needs.
Beyond this I believe we need to do a real and viable strategic plan including our residents (customers), implementers (venue managers) and potential suppliers providing a clear and viable way forward.
b. There has been a lot of discussion recently about the wisdom of hiring a management company to implement responses to many of the issues that were outlined in the Rubin/Brown report. Do you think that this would be an appropriate use of our financial resources?
Ans: I believe I answered this in a previous question 5. Other than the Rubin/Brown report and its associated directions forward, it appears we need to accomplish this path on our own. From my NASA and consulting experience, I believe with good leadership and appropriate oversite we should be able to accomplish this path by ourselves. The Rubin/Brown findings do not require a rocket science approach (by the way I am an award-winning rocket scientist), just good effective management.
c. This is a small community with only 5 members of our Board of Trustees. Small boards always function better when the members have the ability to compromise. Could you give us examples of your experience in working in a collaborative environment and how you believe it is best to make progress on our issues when there are significant differences of opinion amongst the trustees?
Ans: My career as a NASA senior scientist and executive is full of compromise necessary to develop long range research plans with other collaborators including the eventual users/benefactors, potential suppliers, and researchers to develop and execute a viable research agenda. I have a 32-year experience in NASA working with the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration and other Government agencies to develop and execute research that is beneficial to the overall Nation. Successful plan development and execution is always full of compromise and associated collaboration. In NASA I was taught that we work on the “Big” problems, but I found the only way to tackle the Big problems was to break them into smaller problems that are actually something you can solve, and sooner than you know it we have solved enough smaller problems that you have solved the bigger ones.
d. Our present Strategic Plan is a mess, without a single listed goal. When would be the best time for the trustees to develop a new Strategic Plan? What is your experience in strategic planning, and would you favor a seasoned planning consultant to help with this process? [ASKED]
Ans: This was discussed at the Candidate Forum. I agree on the current “mess” that our current strategic plan is without clear goals or a path to pursue it really isn’t strategic. I have been part and parcel in developing strategic plans for National goals. I worked with the FAA, DoD, Homeland Security, Presidential Science Advisor, National Government Laboratories, and others in what was known as the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) to develop a National Plan for the modernization of the Nation’s Air Transportation System. I have also assisted as a facilitating the FAA’s strategic plan for their implementation role out of their En Route Automation Modernization program. Regarding a consultant, I found that a consulting facilitator is highly beneficial to the process. It is equally important to have customers (IVGID residents), suppliers (IVGID contractors) and implementors (IVGID employees) as key members of the planning team.
9 – What is your opinion about bringing in an outside company to manage IVGID?
Ans: If we have good leadership that has financial acumen and experience, I don’t think it is necessary. If we don’t, our management is prone to provide what we currently have, untransparent finances, inability to make progress and overall lack of moral fortitude to get the job accomplished. To develop a contract to hire an effective management solution, we need to be able to detail what is necessary for our management requirements, and currently that is clear as mud. So even if we wanted to outsource management, we can’t even describe what a good management solution would be for our enterprise. So at this time as indicated by a lack of response to the IVGID Management RFP it is a waste of time to discuss.
10 – How do you feel we can maximize use of our amenities such as Snowflake Lodge, etc.
Ans: Right now, I don’t have a real answer other than Snowflake Lodge and many of our other similar amenities are in desperate need of upgrading and other enhancements to make them viable. I would first research any previous plans to further enhance their utilization. Then work with the venue managers to find an effective path forward for enhanced utilization. In talking to one of the employees that works at the Snowflake Lodge during the ski season, he described it as a “scary” building. Thus, this is not a simple answer it will take significant funds to even evaluate its potential utility to be maximized.
11 – Would you consider leasing Snowflake Lodge in the summers?
Ans: Refer to question 10, but I believe we would also need to enhance the Lakeview chair or completely replace it for such a utilization. This level of capital improvement could be a requirement that comes out of our strategic plan development, but I believe a real business case would be required to accomplish this idea.
12 – How do you feel about bringing in an outside consulting firm to assist with running IVGID?
Ans: Already discussed as answers to questions 5, 8b and 9.
13 – What is your plan for the Old Elementary School?
Ans: The Old Elementary School is owned by Washoe Country Transportation Department. They have proposed that it become a transportation hub, which I totally disagree, and would oppose. If IVGID owned it, I think we could begin to consider investing in it to become workforce housing. But the major problem as I understand it, is it was originally condemned due to its location over the Incline fault. Without knowing the detailed geology of this property and its implications, it is hard to discuss options without this knowledge.
14 – What do you think should be the basis for setting and dividing up the facility fees for the various venues? Do you think the current system is fair?
Ans: I have read the information regarding the pricing pyramid that the current board has adopted and some of the staff material that attempted to implement an approach to the pricing pyramid. The pricing Pyramid seems like a reasonable high-level concept towards pricing and distributing support for the various venues, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of the staff approach for its implementation. With that said I have no idea if the current system is fair or unfair due to the currently available written material. Also, I believe that the community needs to provide input on where we want our resources utilized.
15 – The Board has the authority to define guests where the beaches are concerned. How would you define a “guest”?
Ans: I believe “guests” are used in the actual beach deed as paying members of the local hotels. I believe that “guest” is also used in the beach deed as friends or extended relatives of parcel owners. So, I would refer to the beach deed to make an opinion on what a guest is for the purposes of the beach.
16 – Do you support some limited summer beach access for dogs?
Ans: No, not unless it is managed very well and possibly a fee to ensure clean-up and the safety of the young children using the beaches. My wife and I often go on long walks through our community with a trash bag and pickers. One of the most common trashes I pick-up, my wife thinks it is gross, is the little green and black plastic bags containing dog stuff. This tells me some dog owners are just not responsible citizens. Even though it is probably a very small percentage, it is the safety of small children at stake, as such I will err on their side.
17 - If facility fees are legitimate why don’t cities and counties use them for their facilities?
Ans: I believe that these governments can use fees to pay for a special benefit such as a legitimate standby service charge for the availability to receive water and sewer services. The other fees they often charge is for specific purposes, such as usage of govt. run museums, pools, or other amenities. Counties and cities can also impose sales and other taxes. They can also use ad valorem taxes such as a GID can as a percentage of the valuation of property. It can be argued that the fees we charge here are for general purposes, not specific, since the money moves depending on need. Thus, the fees here in IVGID, based on this usage is really a tax.
18 – Michelle Jezycki: Other than ‘giving back to the community’ I haven’t heard/seen any explanation of why you are running. Please share.
Ans: N/A
19 – Most governments outsource operations when they become too costly to operate. Are there any operations IVGID should outsource? If none, why not?
Ans: I do not believe this is correct, i.e., outsource when they become too costly to operate. In my government/NASA experience, outsourcing is considered where the number of employees is usually statutorily limited. The term outsourcing is often used when it needs more employees to accomplish a task than are within the government. So, the government in this case contracts out work that is not inherently governmental. That said IVGID currently outsources janitorial services and some large building maintenance (such as painting), due to the need of more workers than currently available within the government, and the job is not inherently governmental. The decision to outsource is usually defined by 1) is this work inherently governmental, if so, then NO, 2) an analyses of cost benefit to the outsourcing, and 3) do we currently have government personal accomplishing the task. These analyses have not been done as far as I know, so I have no information to form a proper answer. At NASA we have outsourced many non-inherently governmental tasks, which sometime was a benefit in costs, but often lost a lot of historical knowledge that had to be re-learned by the contractor. So, in general I am not for outsourcing without compelling evidence to the contrary.
20 – Some years ago we had a Parcel-Utilization study that showed how often each parcel used each venue. Will you ask staff to do a similar study to share with the public?
Ans: I believe this data is still being collected so it should be straight forward to accomplish the analyses, and if it is at the request of the trustees, it must be shared with the public due to Nevada’s Open Meeting statutes.
21 – We were supposedly getting a zero-based budget last year. It never happened. Do you support zero-based budgeting? Why or why not?
Ans: Yes, zero based budgeting requires the managers prepare their funding based on efficiency and necessity rather than historical allocations. It is also a best practice for the managers to convince not only the funder (You and I), but also each other as to the necessity of their funds. It was interesting, that in last May’s budget marathon, when the venue managers said that they didn’t know what their budget was until it was handed to them. So obviously IVGID didn’t do zero-based budgeting! In my NASA executive experience, we always did zero-based budgeting, and the challenges that I experienced from other managers provided me with the skills and tools to convince the funders that my proposed budgets were necessary.
22 – Do you think the Central Services costs are justifiable and fairly distributed? If not, what’s not justified? What’s not fair?
Ans: I cannot form an opinion on this matter because Central Service costs are essentially overhead. In both my government and consulting career, overhead amount is hotly debated and audited by independent organization. I know we always worked to keep these expenses as low as possible to ensure competitiveness. Since IVGID can’t even figure out how to be successfully audited in a general sense, I am not sure anyone can tell if the costs are justified or fair. I will tell you that the managers of the organizations receiving funds from the Central Costs allocations should be able to justify and defend to their funders that they are providing value for the managers of the venues supporting them. This should have been part of the zero-based budgeting that never happened (Q21).
23 – I’ve heard venue managers remark that internal services are not competitive with outside providers. Would you consider outsourcing some/all of these?
Ans: I think the answer to this is contained in answers to Q 21-22. But I have no real opinion until provided with the justifications of these internal services. It is my experience that if internal services are justified by the resource producing venues than it would beyond my ability to argue one way or another.
24 – What are the advantages and what are the disadvantages of voting for the ‘slate of 3 candidates?’
Ans: I think that a Chicago style slate is bizarre for a small community as ours. I believe it provides zero if not negative consequences. I think that the trustees should be independent and smart individuals that are well integrated into our community. They should debate with facts and details of any issue brought to their attention. And after debate build compromise and consensus toward a decision. I believe a slate simply brings forward a team of like-minded folks that would have in our case a majority of the board, to do anything they want without compromise with others. Bad Bad Bad! Though I heard from the 3 candidates that they “really don’t know anything of the Political Action Committee that is supporting them.” I find this claim a bit suspect, especially with the fact that the PAC has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on signs and supported “meet and greet” activities. If I knew of some organization spending thousands of dollars on me, I would want to know their motivations prior to accepting their generous funding and support.
25 – For all candidates: What is the one skill or one specific professional credential you have that will most benefit IVGID? [ASKED]
Ans: My management and financial expertise. We need to quickly dig ourselves out of this the financial nightmare IVGID is currently experiencing. I can use my leadership skills to help drive home the need to fix this so we can get to the real business of overseeing IVGID.
26 – a. What do you think is the #1 priority for the IVGID currently?
Ans: Fixing our finances!
b. How would you improve morale with staff?
Ans: My NASA training and experience has provided me with the view that Morale is directly related to Job Satisfaction and Perception of Value. I also learned in my career, and I believe everyone can attest to, that your job is only as good as your first level manager. That said, I am not sure that the trustees can do much about morale other than to hire an outstanding leader with good financial qualifications to implement a real vision for the staff. I have also heard that at the lowest level some of our employees hear from the managers that blame the trustees for the directions they are given. This I feel is very poor management! As a manager and executive at NASA I often was provided guidance to implement a new management policy. I wound never blame to executives of the policy, simply implement it, and trusted in their ability to make a proper decision. If I felt the policy or guidance was contrary to our mission, I would discuss it with my bosses and demand to know from them if they considered my concerns when making the decision. If after that if I still felt that the decision was a disaster I had only one option, which was to quit that job and find another. I did this once in my career.
c. Do you support bonding to help pay for long overdue capital improvements?
Ans: Yes, if the capital improvement is necessary for the long-term and that residents many years from now will still be taking advantage of it. As example the bonding of the affluent pipeline and the new sewage pond. These should be around for the next 30-50 years.
27 – How do you feel about a management company taking over IVGID?
Ans: Refer to Q 5 and 9.
28 – If elected what will you do to create a harmonious working relationship with your fellow trustees? [ASKED]
Ans: I believe I need to hold myself accountable to my fellow trustees and our residents providing the best information I have to offer in a respectful and meaningful manner. When I started this campaign, I came up with the following tenets Stewardship, Transparency, Accountability, Respect and Sustainability. I believe holding myself to these tenets will allow me to build trust with my fellow trustees, as well as knowing I have no ulterior or hidden agendas. I have defined these tenets in the context of being a trustee for IVGID and they can be reviewed on my website: harryswenson4ivgidtrustee.com
29 – How do you plan to ensure the remaining staff’s jobs are secure while improving morale and trust among the staff? [ASKED]
Ans: Not sure what you are asking, I think most of the existing staff that are productive know that their jobs are secure, since they are doing an important and necessary job. Those that feel they are not doing an important and productive job need to rethink their approach to IVGID. The part about morale was answered in Q26b.
30 –a. IVGID Policy 1.1.0 Titled” Strategic Planning” establishes the need for a Strategic Plan and the process by which such a plan would be created. The district’s most recent Strategic Plan was for fiscal years 2021/22 and 2022/23. What is your view of the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to ensure the accomplishment of the district’s Strategic Plan and of its execution? [ASKED]
Also answered in 8d.
b. What key attributes and skills sets should the district general manager possess, and how should the Board conduct the search and selection process?
Ans: We need to recruit and hire a well experienced General Manager that is a proven leader and has broad financial knowledge to guide the day-to-day operations of our community. In my NASA career I had the opportunity to recruit, hire and train many managers and leaders who all had successful careers of their own. I believe as a trustee we need to reach out to potential candidates that we know have both the leadership and financial skills as well as broadly advertise the position. We then need to review, debate, and come to consensus on the best candidate and support them in their challenging position.
31 – All candidates: Employee morale is at an all-time low. What is your plan to restore it?
Ans: Answered in Q26b
32 – All Candidates: The facility fees have been blown-up/significantly reduced to the detriment of our venues. If elected, what are your thoughts regarding the fees?
Ans: Answered in Q3
33 – Candidate Wright: What positive actions do you plan on contributing to the IVGID Board if elected?
Ans: Not applicable
34 – Frank Wright: You placed a campaign sign at 893 Southwood without permission of the owner. Why did you do that?
Ans: Not applicable.
35 – What is your position on privatizing IVGID services?
Ans: Discussed and answered in Qs 5, 8b, and 9.
36 – All Candidates: At the last town hall, trustee Schmitz stated that she no longer wants to give residents a 10% discount on food at the Chateau or Diamond Peak. Thoughts?
Ans: I do not believe this is the case. I believe that we earned our “locals” discounts.
37 – Who are you voting for the US presidency and why?
Ans: I believe this question is inappropriate. If you are asking about my personal views, I am generally conservative but believe the need to help the less fortunate. As a NASA employee I was happy to take the oath of office to Preserve, Protect and Defend the Constitution of the United States and its Bill of Rights and all its Amendments. I believe in limited government where the rights of the individual are above the government. I also believe in strong education but feel that the expense has gotten out of hand. I can remember that I was able to work through the summer and part-time during the school year to pay for my college. I think it is unacceptable that students today will leave college with debts exceeding $100,000. I also believe that we need to help folks that have fallen on tough times to assist them in pulling themselves up by their bootstraps so they can once again feel that they are a valued and productive member of the community.
38 – Did you sign the recall petition, and if so why?
Ans: I felt the recall process was very undemocratic. When it first came up, I did a little research and found that less than 1% of all recalls are effective and that they often tear apart a community. Which is exactly what happened here, pitting neighbor against neighbor. I also did research on the reasons stated for the recall and found them to be misleading, many cases untrue and simply intended to make our trustees look like monsters, which they are not. Also, if the recall was successful the new trustees could be elected by 2 of the 3 existing board members, overruling the votes of thousands of our residents. This too, is highly undemocratic. I too have been subjected to false and misleading statements by some of the recall leaders, which I continue to battle, and trying to develop a thicker skin against these people that like to spread falsehoods. So, I didn’t sign it.
39 – Some past boards have been sub-optimized by forming ‘monolithic’ voting blocs. By campaigning as a ‘team’ (combined posters), if Homan, Tonking, and Jezycki win, can you give the voters assurance that you three are independent?
Ans: I cannot, though I am not any of the above-mentioned candidates. I believe our community needs 5 smart independent thinking board members that can bring different views and perspectives to their discussions and deliberations. During their deliberations the trustees must strive to come to consensus even if they must compromise to bring consensus. This doesn’t mean that they also have to give up their firmly held values to compromise, but they should be willing to give up something.
40 – There has been a lot of talk about financial problems at IVGID. Has any malfeasance been found and turned over to the sheriff or other law enforcement?
Ans: I am sure that there are personnel issues associated with this question, but I do not know the answer. The forensic audit report showed we have 44 observations of risks of fraud with 16 considered high risks. Of our full-time employees, almost two thirds have an IVGID credit card that can be used without prior approval, justification, or post usage accounting. Our books are months if not years out of date. We have individuals that represent both sides of major IVGID financial transactions, i.e., both as the IVGID purchaser and as the IVGID supplier. It also showed an unaccounted amount of seven $7million. If there was no malfeasance here, then this is highly unethical behavior. I also heard in the Candidate Forum last week that two of the candidates, one an existing trustee and one that was briefly on the IVGID audit committee were against the Forensic Audit because it was a waste of time and money and showed nothing that we didn’t already know. If these facts were known from previous audits, why did they not do something about it? If I was on the audit committee, I would be yelling it from the rooftops and if I was a trustee, I would have stopped these egregious practices.
41 – Mr. Homan: Why should non-skiers/non-golfers be forced to subsidize other residents’ hobbies?
Ans: I am not Mr. Homan. Though by my very nature I don’t believe anybody should be forced to do anything against their will. I know my existing tax dollars do go to many things I don’t believe and even some of them are amoral to my values. This is a very controversial issue. I can only offer, that we operate based on the consent of the community.
42 – To candidates Wright, Case, and Swenson: Would you in any circumstance outsource the GM or head of golf to an outside company?
Ans: Answered in Q5, 8b,9, and 19
43 – What are your views on the recent recall? In favor? Opposed?
Ans: Q38
44 – What do you think the new board’s first priority should be?
Ans: Q26. Fix our Finances!
45 – Is it your view that each of our venues within our portfolio of recreational facilities should be treated as a stand-alone commercial enterprise?
Ans: No
46 – Yes or no: Do you believe we should outsource some or all of the management of IVGID’s recreational facilities? … or at the administrative level? [ASKED]
Ans: Q 5,8b,9, and 19.
47 – Where do you stand on privatizing IVGID’s recreational facilities?
Ans: Q 5, 8b, 9, and 19.
48 – Mr. Homan: Is it fair for the working-class residents to subsidize the venues they don’t use such as golf and ski?
Ans: Q41
49 – Can IVGID budget for various recreational budgets by usage? As an example, the exercise classes are overcrowded. Can they increase budget given that usage is high?
Ans: I have experienced this over crowding many times. Now that we no longer provide day care, why don’t we reconfigure the group fitness room (GFR) and the old childcare room to address this overcrowding. Also, I guess you might be also calling for demand pricing, such that folks that want to participate in group fitness actives at high demand times they pay more, just like the golf venues currently do. So, this is a possibility, but I would need to see an analysis of this idea.
50 – Financial transparency – In a manner that is summarized, easy to read, and to understand by the general populace?
Ans: Not sure there is a question here, but my views are I will insist on the generation of monthly budget status information, such as I had to create as a project manager, that can be explained in one to two figures. Not the hundreds of pages of monthly ledger printouts that are currently provided. These figures should be easy to understand by anyone in the community that balances a checkbook.
51 – After reading the forensics due diligence audit, I was shocked at the findings. What are the candidates’ perspectives and how can they correct the observed deficiencies?
Ans: Each of the 44 observations of fraud risk have a different answer, so I will try to summarize my thoughts in a more general sense. Our financial reporting is months if not years out of date; we need to have accurate, timely and digestible information routinely available for the decision makers and the community. I will insist on the generation of monthly budget status information, such as I had to create as a project manager, that can be explained in one to two figures. Not the hundreds of pages of monthly ledger printouts that are currently provided.
Over 2/3rds of our employees have access to an Incline Village credit card without real approval or accountable procedures. As described in the report this and many of our current financial procedures are prone to High Risks of Fraud. We need to reduce the number of cards to a limited number of managers and team leaders, and institute increased oversight and verification of the expenditures. Our people are not trained in the usage and procedures of our accounting system acquired two years ago. This is unacceptable. We need to ensure our IVGID leadership in each of the departments is fully trained and capable using the accounting system. Every transaction must be verified, justified, and recorded correctly in the accounting system. We have individuals that represent both sides of major IVGID financial transactions. This should never be the case. In general, we need to institute a culture that respects the people’s money!
52 – I’d like each candidate to say whether he or she now believes that it was appropriate to do the forensic audit and whether he or she agrees with its recommendations and will (if elected) work to implement them ASAP. Thank you. [ASKED]
Ans: Yes. I think it was appropriate and since it was done by an outside independent auditing firm that require their credibility to actually survive in their business I believe that they may have only scratched the surface. They were not allowed to put people under oath, so “I don’t know” was a common catch phrase given to the auditors.
53 – Given the financial mess that IVGID is in, could each candidate share what financial/expense background they have that will help?
Ans: For a large percentage of my NASA career, I was responsible for millions of dollars. As a supervisor I was responsible for all aspects of my $8 million a year budget, including detailed budgeting, justification, tracking, approving all purchases (including credit cards) and monthly reviews by my senior managers. As a project manager and program manager (Principal Investigator) I was responsible for overall budgeting of a $100 million/per year including high-level planning, monthly justification, and reporting (budget, actuals, and variances) to my executives, not only at NASA but yearly to independent groups, such as the National Science Foundation and the NASA Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. NASA provided significant training in budgeting, Federal Acquisition Regulations as well as detailed accounting and financial system usage. NASA also provided project and program management training that included significant training in all financial responsibilities and methods. NASA also sent me to the MIT Slone School of Management for training on managing Research and Development.
54 – How should IVGID work with their community partners?
Ans: This is a very open-ended question, and the answer would depend on the partner. We have numerous partners including the Washoe Sheriff, North Tahoe Fire Department, Washoe County school district and schools, Washoe County itself, numerous non-profits, the US Forest Service, the Hyatt and Tahoe Lodge, our local businesses and many more. I think it is best to work with each in formal agreements that specifies the relationship with expectations from all partners. This provides an avenue of respect and helps to avoid confusion allowing both parties to understand their responsibilities to one another.
55 – What are your thoughts about a 4-way stop sign at Village and Northwood by the Elementary School?
Ans: I travel through this intersection every day, and sometimes it is scary. I am not a road transportation engineer but know that on intersections like this there are often studies that justify its design. I don’t have too many thoughts but think a light which favors the traffic demand direction, might be appropriate. This is the top of the head thought, so if folks think this is a major problem like I do, possibly Washoe County could do a traffic and safety study and provide different options to the community of our collective perceived risks.
56 – PAC – Why and will all 3 candidates vote as a block?
Ans: Don’t know but I provided my view on this Chicago style slate in Q24.
57 – In a few words why would we vote in the PAC?
Ans: I have no earthly idea! Comparing some of my positions with those candidates that are running as some sort of Bizarre Chicago Style Slate, supported by the PAC. From what we heard at the Candidate Forum the candidates that is supported by the PAC said in they really don’t know about the PAC that is supporting them. I find it very strange that a PAC which is spending thousands and thousands of dollars on Signs and sponsorship of many meet and greets, and their candidates know nothing about it but are happy to have the PAC’s support. You must ask yourselves what’s the PAC’s real motivation, if it was me, I would want to know a lot about them before I would allow them to support me at their current financial level. I have been running a self-funded campaign, no PAC or STRs supporting me, though recently when I started meet and greets some of my new friends have donated to my campaign. Be aware if you really like one of the three, please feel free to vote for that person. YOU DO NOT NEED TO VOTE FOR ALL THREE. You can vote for up to three candidates and I would appreciate your support.
58 – Do you ski and/or play golf, pickleball, bocce ball?
I ski in the winter, play golf in the summer, I do not pickleball (too risky to my preferred golf or skiing), I created a small bocce ball court at my home, but have often thought when I get older, I might want to use the real courts at the Rec Center and Ski Beach.
59 – Do you believe IVGID should be self-managed or hire a third party to manage it?
Ans: Q 5, 8b, 9, and 19.
60– a. Do you believe IVGID recreation assets (ski, beaches, golf, recreation) should be profitable on a stand-alone basis or together as an entity? [ASKED]
Ans: Q4
b. Is the proposed evacuation plan for Incline adequate, or what changes would you make?
Ans: No. Our biggest issue is there are only 3 ways out of Incline (28 to Hwy 50, 28 to 267 and 431). In recent traffic simulations, results published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune (I think) showed that it will take more than 6 hours to evacuate if all three routes are open and beyond 9 hours if one of the routes are closed. I think the only viable option is to create a 4th evacuation route using elements of the old Mt. Rose highway. But I am sure TRPA would never approve. So, my plan is to take my kayak out on the lake and wait it out if it is a fire. Not sure what I would do if the Incline fault had a major quake.
c. What plan is there if undocumented immigrants are bussed into Incline?
Ans: None that I know of.
61– What are the candidates’ perspectives on increasing the Rec Fee or issuing bonds to cover IVGID expenses?
Ans: Issuing bonds to cover expenses is a non-starter, you cannot bond for recurring expenses. The Rec fee is also controversial, since the fee isn’t used for a specific purpose, it could be considered a tax. The possibility exists that to cover expenses we could use IVGID’s ad valorem tax authority, which I would prefer to have it voted on by the residents.
62 – a. How do you plan to make things better for the IV Community?
Ans: Discussed a bit in Q8a, to include the hiring of a qualified and smart leader with financial expertise as a general manager. To engage with the community and hold myself to the tenets of my campaign (Stewardship, Transparency, Accountability, Respect and Sustainability defined in the context of IVGID on my website: harryswenson4ivgidtrustee.com). I believe this will start to bring trust back between the community and its trustees. This will then bring back the ability to engage each other with civility and respect.
b. What does ‘accountability’ and ‘adding value’ mean to you?
Ans: From my website, Accountability: Trustees have the fundamental obligation to accept the responsibility and account to the community for their actions and decisions. As such, I promise to discuss, define and if necessary, defend my actions with all members of our community with clear facts and gathered community opinions.
Adding Value means that in your ideas actions and deeds you have done something recognizable to others as providing something better than before.
c. See many mature community members in the audience, not many younger generational community members. So how do you plan to advocate to the younger generation to care about IV the way we do?
Ans: Communication and engagement. As a member of the St. Francis Knights of Columbus, many of our activities are geared towards supporting and engaging our youth group. This is hard, yet very rewarding work. I think many of our service organizations have a focus on young people. I believe highlighting these activities in our operations would be useful. We need to see how we can partner more with our schools to benefit each other. I suggest a possible way to partner with the schools to assist with our trash problem as mentioned in Q2. I also volunteer with Incline Elementary School’s Read with Me program. As such I have found there is a large segment of our young community members that can’t use our facilities due to limited family income. If we want to have our youngsters be more involved, we need to fix this financial challenge.
d. What plan do you have to address where our IVGID money is going?
Ans: As I always did as a NASA employee who was responsible for money: “Follow the Money!” This doesn’t mean follow every penny, it means making sure our financial information is transparent, accurate and understandable and reviewed monthly by the trustees.
63 – Why has the district not hired an auditor?
Ans: According to the treasurer, we have an engagement letter with our auditor.
64 – One of you on stage stated at a public meeting on May 29—and recorded in its meeting minutes on June 26— the need to increase the Rec Fee 2x to 3x. Not sure it’s that easy, legal, or the only option! What are the candidates’ perspectives on increasing the Rec Fee, bonds, or increasing public revenues?
Ans: Q7
65 – Michaela Tonking: You were on the Board for what has been referred to as the “total decimation of the finance department.” I believe this includes both at a staffing level and in terms of the department’s productivity. You have a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Accounting. What more could you/should you have done to avert this situation in the past term? And what would you do differently if re-elected?
Ans: I am not trustee Tonking, but if I was there, it wouldn’t happen because my NASA training is to address risks and take mitigation actions. Precursors to the “total decimation” would be departure of critical staff or several staff. As a project manager I included my staffing levels and critical staff as part of my monthly risk meetings. I would require this type of information as part of the GM’s monthly status.
66 – Do you believe it should be a mandatory condition of employment that the GM lives in Incline Village?
Ans: Not sure, but I am a firm believer of “Management by Walking Around.” So as long as the GM can be here for every non vacation day as well as a significant number of weekends throughout the year, I really don’t care where they live.
67 – Do any of the candidates have any accounting knowledge?
Ans: Discussed in many of the above questions I have extensive financial and management experience including supervising accountants and their work.
68 – What specific action steps will you take to address the housing crisis facing essential employees (service industry and other customer service positions)?
Ans: Not sure, but an option I provided to Q13, is to possibly use the old elementary school as IVGID housing. But this is a very expensive proposition, and would need broad community support for the necessary bonding as well as the Washoe Transportation Authority to provide very favorable purchase terms.
69 – What is the job of the Board of Trustees? What is the job of IVGID? What is the job of the IVGID Manager?
Ans: Trustee: Oversight and setting of policy. IVGID: Conduct the work that is necessary to implement the policy. GM: Chief executive to ensure the efficient execution of the policies and manage day to day operations. The GM also is required to keep the trustees well informed of status of the execution and any and all significant issues that need policy enhancement or creation.
70 – If elected, what would you do to expand year-round use of facilities such as Snowflake Lodge?
Ans: Q10 and 11.
71 – What is each candidate’s plan for the amenities?
Ans: Keep them and ensure that they are operated as safely, efficiently and cost effectively as possible.
72 – After the election is over, who is responsible for picking up all yard signs on public lands?
Ans: I believe each Candidate and PAC is responsible for picking them up within 3 days.
73 – Michaela Tonking: Why did you vote against the forensic audit?
Ans: Not Trustee Tonking, but if I was a trustee at the time, I would have voted in favor of it.
74 – a. The primary function of the trustees is to hire a GM and then to keep his/her feet to the fire in implementing the board’s demands.
Ans: Is there a question here?
b. Hiring staff (complete staff) is responsibility of the GM NOT the trustees. Will you coddle another ineffective GM?
Ans: No, we do pay the GM very well for their job, I would expect them to do their Job!
c. Staff harmony arises from competent performance. How will you insure competent performance? By micromanaging?
Ans: My management style is to empower my team to do the job! I only get involved and provide guidance, feedback and support when needed. I trained many senior successful NASA leaders in this approach and feel that it will be my duty to assist our district similarly.
Closing Statement
I want to thank the moderators of this candidate forum and the audience that listened respectfully and with interest. My Name is Harry Swenson, and I am running for trustee of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Communities.
I believe you heard tonight very different visions of IVGIDs future. What I believe you heard from me is that I am a uniquely qualified individual that wants to desperately help the District overcome its financial challenges and begin to bring the community together with the camaraderie and friendliness that I remember when I first visited and moved here many years ago.
I have a love for this community and feel extremely fortunate to wake up every morning, viewing our lake. During this forum and your questions and our answers I believe you heard about depth of my knowledge of not only about our community but the detailed workings of IVGID itself. You also heard about my extensive NASA management and financial vast expertise and associated training. As I indicated during our time here tonight, I and my wife Mary Jane have been very active members of our community with our local service clubs assisting with the 4th of July celebrations, my church (St. Francis), as a member of the IVGID Golf Advisory Committee, our Elementary School assistance with “Read with Me”, Conversation Café and Incliners. This has provided me with a broad understanding of our community and its needs. When I moved here fulltime, 10 years ago, I found it so easy to make new friends in this community, as a matter of fact I think in my first year here I made more friends than the last 35 or so when I lived in the Bay Area. During this campaign I have made many more and if I am elected, I am planning to try to make friends across the community to assist in my Trustee position.
I would like to contrast my views and positions with other candidates running for trustee position. It is my view that we need a group of smart, independent individuals and people willing to be here and put in the work as our trustees. These trustees need to be willing to discuss all the items brought before the board and bring diverse knowledge to its deliberations reaching consensus from views across the community, for the community benefit. I find that the group seemingly running as a Chicago style slate is not good for our community, though I heard from the 3 candidates that they “really don’t know anything of the Political Action Committee that is supporting them.” I find this claim a bit suspect, especially with the fact that the PAC has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on signs and supported “meet and greet” activities. If I knew of some organization spending thousands of dollars on me, I would want to know their motivations prior to accepting their generous funding and support. We have one candidate that took issue with the expense of “fleet management” as a too high a cost item in our venues. I am not sure if he knows it, but this item covers the salaries and tools associated with our mechanics servicing all our diverse equipment for all our venues. He simply indicated that we could cut their salaries by 50% to reduce cost, I don’t think he knows that IVGID has negotiated with our employee’s union that set these salaries. I believe that this union contract has many years left and this simplistic view is not realistic. I would also compare my views on the introduction and implementation of accounting automation that IVGID purchased. One of the candidates stated that we need to understand that our financial services are understaffed, thus we should understand their current challenges. What I don’t understand is that in 2020 when this system was purchased, we had a fully staffed finance department. At the time the senior staff (Windquest and DeFasio) chose to implement the system inhouse, even though they were warned by both the public and trustees that this was fraught with challenges. Here we are 4 years later, and we have yet to have a workable accounting automation, and I believe IVGID is finally reaching out for expert help by the company, and with the exception of a Finance Director we are fully staffed again. We have an existing trustee that voted against the Forensic Audit, also in the slate, that indicated that we learned nothing new from the Forensic Audit. I can’t believe that if previous reports showed the breath of risks of fraud, including unaccounted credit card purchases and employees on both sides of financial transactions, that she wouldn’t do anything about these issues. I know I would. The previous audits told me that our financial system is out of control and is a major reason I am running for the trustee position.
My time is over but feel free to ask any questions about my candidacy and myself directed to my website. HarrySwenson4IVGIDtrustee.com I will also try to get a copy of all the questions asked tonight and provide answers on my website.
Thank-you for your time.
Harry Swenson
Candidate for Trustee of IVGID