Trashing the IVGID Quarterly
For the last 7 years, IVGID published the IVGID Quarterly. This full-color glossy magazine is mailed to all property owner of Incline Village and Crystal Bay. Now published FIVE times a year, the name has changed to “IVGID Magazine”.
What is wrong with this?
1. IVGID is organized under NRS 318. There is no statute authorizing a General Improvement District to produce a magazine or mass mailing such a publication. Therefore, IVGID should NOT be publishing the magazine. Nevada is a “Dillon’s Rule” state, which limits the powers of local government to those specifically authorized by statute – see footnote. [1] In contrast, the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs is authorized by statute (NRS 231.290) to publish a magazine. [2]
2. Advertising for the benefit of business entities using a government publication is NOT a function of government. The federal government printing office has said such advertising is unfair to multiple parties, stating, “This is a temptation the government ought not to encourage.” [3]
3. Content for the magazine is produced by IVGID’s staff – but no tracking of their time is done. This means property owners have no idea how much the magazine really costs. CC Media, the publisher sells ads with all proceeds (around $46,000 for the June 2021 publication with 48 ads) benefitting CCMedia with IVGID not receiving one penny. IVGID actually paid $2,196.50 to CC Media for “production” (see the contract here). Ads are for businesses in Reno, Carson, Incline Village, Crystal Bay, Tahoe City and Truckee. The more ads sold, the more CC Media profits.
[Footnote 4]
4. The magazine enables the District to practice “viewpoint discrimination,” which is a violation of the First Amendment. The magazine policy states, “The District shall have the right, in its sole and exclusive discretion, to disapprove of and exclude any product or business from advertising in the Magazine. The District General Manager disapproved an advertisement by the Village Alliance (March 2023), in an email, “Our policy with the magazine is not to accept any ads of a political nature – this would include candidate ads, or ad for organizations determined to be political in nature.” [Footnote 4]
5. The magazine provides a publicly funded one-sided platform for puffery. The General Manager benefits from the use of government resources to aggrandize IVGID and himself, with the potential for increasing his salary and benefits. There is no balance in the publication – no letters to the editor or opposing views – and it is meant to influence public opinion. Isn’t this the definition of propaganda?
6. The current General Manager benefits from the magazine through control over the type of advertising. The General Manager who began IVGID Quarterly was Steven Pinkerton, who was a city manager in California prior to becoming the GM of IVGID. He likely knew California had banned mass mailings, and realized Nevada had no such law. Within a year of taking office, he initiated the publication.
Control over advertising could deter any business that potentially wishes to advertise from exercising their rights to freedom of speech during budget or other public hearings of the Incline Village General Improvement District.
At the Board meeting held on March, 8th, it was found that no Board policy existed for complete control by the General Manager. He suggested that a policy should be made. This would be irrelevant as publishing the magazine is not allowed by statute.
7. The Board of Trustees’ photos and names are included in each edition providing them free advertising, and face and name recognition. This has value and are potential ethics violations (NRS 281A.400 (2) and 281A.400 (7)). [5]
Articles are never published about IVGID’s managerial problems. There have been extensive prior period adjustments the financial statements, lack of internal controls and poor administration of contracts. Plus the use of the beaches as an employee benefit in violation of the Beach Deed. Coverage of these and other issues is only found on this web site: Our Incline Village/Crystal Bay Voice.
8. Along with being mailed to residents , the magazine is distributed as an insert in the Tahoe Daily Tribune. The TDT, receiving revenue for distribution, is biased in favor of IVGID, and does not cover stories like the Mark Smith lawsuit regarding public records.
Our conclusion? Although many property owners read the magazine, the Trustees must consider whether it should be published and mailed, at resident expense. When it is mailed, the US Post office’s trash bins are filled with the magazine. The District owns many web sites and domains: yourtahoeplace, ivgid.org, diamondpeak, inclinegolf, visitincline, IVGIDBeachStudy, Tahoe2o. Surely it could use these platforms to publish useful relevant articles that would keep property owners informed without all the pitfalls of a publicly funded glossy magazine with advertising.
The authors, Cliff Dobler and J. Gumz, are long-time resident and property owners of Incline Village, and registered voters.
You just lost me as an advocate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with publishing the magazine. It provides an excellent source of upcoming programs and available resources. You can pettifog all you want about it not being specifically authorized by statute but I think it is a nice resource.
The content could be put on a website without advertising. And it could be printable – at your home. When you say, “There is nothing wrong” – you have not read the entire article. All eight points.
This website provides a forum for opinions- including those that disagree with the articles published. It is run by resident volunteers, who have NO outside funding.
The magazine publishes, at taxpayer expense, NO viewpoints other than IVGID’s. It would not even run our advertisement.
I like the IVGID quarterly, but I believe it shouldn’t cost the IVGID in that $46,000 is taken in from the various ads. If anything IVGID should be reimbursed as well as receive 10% from the ads for printing the Quarterly to cover employee’s time. ‘
IVGID should not be in the magazine business! The information should be on their web site or available at different IVGID locations like the Rec Center on perhaps a bulletin board.
After being trashed by former Chairman Callicarate in an issue of the “quarterly” as a malcontent, I expressed my anger to our GM who admitted that the comments by Callicrate were wrong, but denied me print space to respond. This episode was a clear violation of my 1st Amendment rights by a public entity.
Fundamentally, I do not want my IVGID fees going to support printing of a quarterly or 5 times a year magazine. I agree a website is much more practical, easier to access, especially if formated for smart phones, it’s easier to keep up-to-date and easier to ‘pubish’ opinions, up-coming events, issues, arguements pro & con. Ads can be sold on a website as well. I think the question is, can the magazine or website be a self sustaining, done without funding from IVGID? Given the amount of adds and self promotion in it, if it can’t then I as a property owner, do not want to fund it.
Thank you for your perspective. Currently IVGID staff time is not tracked, including time spent on working on content for the magazine. The exception a few positions that are “billed” such as engineering. If the staff costs (salaries plus benefits) were logged/tracked/monitored, the results might really be eye-opening. The Tourism Bureau for Nevada produces a magazine, and tracks all its costs and expenses for the magazine in a separate fund. It does not make money.