Week of Aug. 6, 2026

From the editor’s desk

Washoe County Library Director Lisa McClure resigned yesterday, less than four months after she started the job.

By late afternoon, there were a few media reports out, but as of this writing, we still didn’t know why she resigned.

This Is Reno unearthed a clue:

But McClure, in a letter to members of the Board of Trustees sent July 28, however, said she had been told she must resign or face public consideration of her termination. The board is responsible for hiring and evaluating the library director, which must be done in an open meeting. It is unclear who suggested she resign.

TIR unearthed a few more tidbits, too: Library insiders said McClure was not attentive to certain parts of the job; McClure said she’s been too overloaded with “putting out fires” to properly attend to these parts of the job; and she alleged that some staffers are resistant to organizational change. I recommend reading the full article.

Meanwhile, officials are still guarding the facts about why former Reno Police Department Chief Kathryn Nance and two assistant chiefs were fired in May. And more than five months have elapsed since Washoe County removed Judge Connie Steinheimer from all of her cases. You guessed it—still, no one is saying why.

This trend of governments not disclosing facts is not just a problem in Reno and Washoe County. Government transparency has been decreasing at every level. Reporters have always gotten pushback—but ask any reporter you meet, and they’ll tell you that, for years, it’s been getting harder to access records that should be public.

Frank Mullen, a longtime investigative journalist and the RN&R’s editor at large, pointed out another factor in the ever-increasing difficulty of accessing government information: Legacy media—newspapers and TV stations—used to have far more power than they do now.

“The Journal (that’s the Reno Gazette-Journal, where he was a full-time reporter for 25 years) and the TV stations would fight in court when we were unable to get information under the (Public) Records Act,” he said. “They would unleash the lawyers, and after a while, the state and local agencies got the message, and they would simply turn over stuff. And when they didn’t, then we really knew it was something bad.” 

Today, with local news largely underfunded and understaffed, Mullen said, “There’s apparently no team of lawyers to go in there and file a court case. And government officials know that damn well. And so, they can basically ignore NRS 239, the public records statute. … It’s not just a media problem; it’s a community problem. Everyone is entitled to inspect government records, which Nevada law says are considered public by default.”

This is extremely concerning. Without government transparency, we do not have accountability; we have cover-ups galore; and we do not have assurance that governments are acting in our best interest.

Take care,

—Kris Vagner, managing editor