2026-10-20 - City Council Special Meeting

00:00We'll call the special meeting to order to make it easier

00:04for residents to voice their comments.

00:05There'll be two public comment periods.

00:07There'll be one at the beginning of the meeting designated

00:10for comments related to items on the agenda

00:11and one at the end of the meeting

00:13for general public comment.

00:14Speakers will be limited to three minutes

00:16to state their comments.

00:17This meeting is being video recorded

00:19and streamed live on the internet.

00:20Mr. Valdez, please confirm posting and roll call.

00:23- Mayor, this meeting has been posted in accordance

00:25with the Nevada Open Meeting Law.

00:26All members of the council are present

00:28and you have a quorum.

00:29- Thank you.

00:30Now's the time for our first public comment

00:32for the special meeting.

00:33If you wish to make a public comment,

00:35please come to the podium and state your name and zip code.

00:37You will have three minutes to speak.

00:39- Mayor, there is no one in the first public comment queue.

00:44- I'll close it.

00:45Although there was threats, I'll just make a note.

00:47(laughing)

00:49I'll close the public comment.

00:51Ms. Garcia-Vas, are there any changes to the agenda?

00:55- Mayor Romero, there are no changes.

00:57- Thank you.

00:58May have a motion to accept the agenda as presented.

01:02Please vote.

01:08- All members voted in favor of the motion

01:10made by Councilwoman Larson.

01:12Any carries.

01:14- Item number one is the ratification

01:16of assistant city manager.

01:18And the recommendation is to ratify Eddie Dichter

01:21who has over 33 years of experience in local government.

01:2618 years at the city of Henderson working in planning,

01:29code enforcement, community development.

01:33I will say some of this, but Eddie loves to do

01:35all sorts of things outdoors.

01:36You can see him running races,

01:40even in the community most recently,

01:41I think did the scorpion run up at Nevada State College.

01:45You can see him at Silver Knights games

01:47and all sorts of things and enjoying life

01:50with Leslie right behind him.

01:52But we would recommend you ratify that today.

01:55- Thank you.

01:59Eddie, I will just say congratulations.

02:03I'm excited for you.

02:04You have served our city for decades now

02:08and your expertise is really appreciated.

02:12You have a level head, you think things through,

02:15you are collaborative and you have good communication

02:18with everybody you deal with.

02:20It is a true honor for you to join the executive team

02:24for the city and I look forward to being able to work

02:27with you in this new capacity

02:30which I think you're gonna excel at.

02:32Are there any other comments?

02:36- Eddie, I couldn't be more pleased and happy.

02:39You are the consummate professional.

02:41You do everything with a spirit of excellence

02:44and you're such a team player

02:45and it's always just a joy to work with you

02:47and I know we're in capable hands.

02:49Congratulations.

02:53- Eddie, it's been such a thrill to work with you

02:57from the minute I was sworn in until now

03:00and look forward to working with you for years to come.

03:03I think this position is something you really grew into

03:07and it was fun watching you in your different capacities

03:12and it's just been great knowing you so far

03:16and I'm just grateful.

03:18I think you're awesome.

03:20So congratulations on this wonderful promotion

03:24and I am 100% behind you.

03:29- I'll add congratulations.

03:31The short time I've been here,

03:32I've enjoyed working with you.

03:33I'm a huge fan of institutional knowledge

03:35and experience and promoting from within

03:38so it's been well deserved

03:39and you've always been great to work with.

03:42You see the big picture and know how to work things through

03:45and you communicate excellence.

03:47So I look forward to working with you

03:49even that much more now and congratulations.

03:55- I could say something smart, Alec.

03:57Like we probably ought to have the vote first

04:00before we do all this congratulating.

04:05Hey Eddie, I've known you for, I don't know, 25 years

04:09'cause we're back from planning commission days

04:11and it's a joy working with you and you bring a lot

04:13to the table and look forward to continue to work with you.

04:17So congratulations.

04:31- All council members voted in favor.

04:32The motion made by Mayor Michelle Romero and it carries.

04:35- Item number two is the residency requirement

04:38for the Assistant City Manager, Eddie Dichter

04:40and the recommendation is to approve.

04:43- Are there any questions?

04:45This is so loaded, are there any questions or comments?

04:50- Only, I saw Eddie looking at the screen.

04:52We all voted, yes. (laughing)

04:58I told him he has to move into Henderson.

05:00So, but no, it's all good.

05:04- We have a motion, please vote.

05:12- All council members voted in favor.

05:13The motion made by Councilwoman Cox and it carries.

05:17- Item number three is now the moment

05:18we've all been waiting for, the ceremonial oath of office

05:21for Assistant City Manager, Eddie Dichter.

05:46(laughing)

05:52- If he starts with dearly beloved, you're really in trouble.

05:54(laughing)

05:59- Wedding.

06:08- I know Eddie. - I know.

06:10And my parents are watching, so.

06:13They didn't get invited to wedding, so I don't know.

06:18- All right, Edward Dichter.

06:21Having been duly qualified and appointed

06:23by the City Manager due to the position

06:25of Assistant City Manager.

06:26And your appointment having been formally ratified

06:29by the Mayor and Council.

06:30Are you ready to take the oath of office?

06:31- I am.

06:32- Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

06:35I, Edward Dichter.

06:36- I, Edward Dichter.

06:37- Do solemnly swear.

06:38- Do solemnly swear.

06:39- That I will support.

06:41- I will support.

06:41- Protect and defend.

06:43- Protect and defend.

06:44- The Constitution.

06:45- The Constitution.

06:46- And government.

06:47- And government.

06:48- Of the United States.

06:48- Of the United States.

06:49- And the Constitution.

06:50- And the Constitution.

06:51- And government.

06:52- And government.

06:53- Of the state of Nevada.

06:54- And the state of Nevada.

06:55- Against all enemies.

06:56- Against all enemies.

06:58- Whether domestic or foreign.

07:00- Whether domestic or foreign.

07:02- That I will bear true faith.

07:04- I will bear true faith.

07:06- Allegiance.

07:07- Allegiance.

07:07- And loyalty.

07:08- And loyalty.

07:09- To the same.

07:10- To the same.

07:11- Any ordinance.

07:12- Any ordinance.

07:12- Resolution.

07:13- Resolution.

07:14- Or law of any state.

07:16- Or law of any state.

07:17- Not withstanding.

07:18- Not withstanding.

07:19- That I am not under.

07:21- I am not under.

07:22- Any direct.

07:23- Any direct.

07:24- Or indirect obligation.

07:26- Or indirect obligation.

07:27- To vote.

07:28- To vote.

07:29- A point.

07:29- A point.

07:30- Or elect any person.

07:31- Or elect any person.

07:32- To any office.

07:33- To any office.

07:34- Position.

07:35- Position.

07:36- Or employment in the city government.

07:37- Or the employee of our government.

07:40- Or employment.

07:44- Appointment.

07:45- Or employment.

07:46- Or employment.

07:47- In the city government.

07:48- In the city government.

07:49- And.

07:50- And.

07:51- That I will well.

07:51- I will well.

07:52- And faithfully perform.

07:54- And faithfully perform.

07:55- All the duties.

07:56- All the duties.

07:57- Of the office.

07:58- Of the office.

07:59- Of assistant city manager.

08:00- Of assistant city manager.

08:02- For the city of Henderson.

08:03- For the city of Henderson.

08:04- On which I am about to enter.

08:06- Which I am about to enter.

08:07- So help me God.

08:08- So help me God.

08:09- Assistant city manager,

08:10- Thank you.

08:11(audience applauds)

08:37- I told you that row was trouble.

08:42I just want to say I appreciate all of you being here.

08:48And this is very humbling.

08:49I'm a little overwhelmed.

08:51I appreciate it.

08:56Is that a little better?

08:58Again, I just want to thank everybody that's here

09:00and I want to thank Nick and Louie and your teams

09:04for all the years of support.

09:06Your teams are amazing and I look forward

09:08to working with both your teams as we move forward.

09:10Stephanie, I truly appreciate your belief in me

09:15and asking me for this position.

09:18You started out tricking me with interim

09:20and soon after that we had the discussion

09:23but I truly appreciate everything

09:25and the opportunity to do this.

09:27Councilman Cebach, Councilwoman Cox and Councilman Larson,

09:32it's been a pleasure to support and work with you

09:35since you all were elected to the city council.

09:39Councilman Stewart, it's been a pleasure

09:41working with you since 2012.

09:43I believe that's when you joined the Planning Commission.

09:45So it's been a pleasure continuing this

09:48with you in city council.

09:50And Mayor, I guess it's been about 21 years

09:52that we've been working together

09:54either in your employment position with the city

09:56or as Mayor, so I appreciate that.

09:58I look forward to working with all of you

10:00and continuing to support you in my new position.

10:03So thank you very much for your vote of confidence today.

10:17- Now is the time for the final public comment.

10:20Oh, wait, are you not done?

10:21(audience laughing)

10:23Please continue.

10:25- Sorry, take all the time you need.

10:31(audience laughing)

10:33- I've got 45 minutes.

10:35(audience laughing)

10:37- You're good, go. - Okay, thank you.

10:39(audience laughing)

10:41Mom and dad, this isn't really the way it works here

10:43at City of Henderson, but I do wanna just take

10:46a couple of minutes and thank this whole crowd

10:48and all of you here.

10:49I know I've worked with most of you.

10:51I'm gonna continue working with a lot

10:53of other Team Henderson people.

10:54I can't say enough about what our friendship,

10:57our working relationships have been.

10:59So thank you all and I appreciate you being here

11:01to support me today.

11:03I wanna thank my mom and dad.

11:04I think they're watching on TV.

11:05I think they finally figured out how to click on YouTube

11:08and got that working.

11:10I just wanna thank them for all the support over the years.

11:13I was talking to my mom this past week

11:15and I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna say today

11:17and going crazy.

11:17She said, just go up there and say you're great.

11:19You're perfect, you're good.

11:21They're lucky to have you.

11:22So, sorry mom, I had to say that.

11:24(audience laughing)

11:26But I wanna thank them for everything.

11:28I also wanna thank my sisters Dawn and Michelle.

11:31I think they're watching by Brother Craig.

11:33They're all over on the East Coast again, thank you.

11:35At one time, my brother, my older sister and myself

11:39all worked for Calvert County Government together.

11:41That was a pleasure before we all kind of split up

11:43and went our own way.

11:45So, also I'd like to welcome Bill Hansel to the crowd here.

11:51I'm glad he came in from Jamestown to hang out with us

11:53for some months.

11:55He wanted to get away from the cold.

11:57Leslie and I joke around.

11:59He's our 92 year old kid, but we really enjoy having him

12:03and I'm really glad that you're here today.

12:06Then I also wanna thank Leslie.

12:08She's been putting up with me for about 11 years.

12:12(laughing)

12:14She's giving me the look.

12:15But I wanna thank her for all the support and everything

12:17and especially over the past 45 days.

12:20This may or may not be true, but she told me a few times,

12:24you need to take your conversation with yourself outside

12:28and figure out what you wanna do about this job.

12:31And when you've got it figured out between you and yourself,

12:33come in and give me the pros and cons

12:35and we'll have a conversation.

12:37So, I think it did happen a couple of times.

12:41But I wanna thank her and I couldn't do it without her.

12:44And I also wanna congratulate Leslie.

12:47She's gonna retire in May, 31 years with this school

12:52district and we'll see if I get a job title right.

12:59Speech, language pathologist and majority of her years

13:03have been right here in Henderson.

13:05So, I'm very proud of her and she's served

13:06a lot of the Henderson children.

13:08So, congrats to you.

13:09(clapping)

13:17Let's see what else I gotta say about you.

13:21But again, I don't wanna take too much time,

13:23but I do wanna share a little bit since I have this time.

13:25And when Stephanie approached me

13:28and offered me this opportunity, I was like, wow.

13:31I was happy to take over director of community development

13:35never anticipated anything higher than that in my career.

13:39So, when she approached me, I was overwhelmed

13:42and very glad and like, wow, this is pretty cool.

13:46So, I took the time, I said, I need the weekend.

13:49I did a lot of thinking.

13:50A lot of things have gone through my mind

13:51and I kinda did a little flashback

13:54of kind of what happened over my career.

13:56I won't share everything, it's too much.

13:59But I mentioned before, I started out

14:01in Calvert County government back in Maryland.

14:03I did about 10 years there, environmental protection,

14:07tiger beetles, shore roads control, all sorts of cool stuff.

14:12But I was done.

14:13I was done with Florida, Maryland.

14:15I went to a conference, I took my resume

14:17and I was fortunate enough to team up with the people

14:20from city of Las Vegas and I gave them my resume

14:23and they were working on a permit tracking system

14:26and that I just finished up

14:28with the same company at Calvert County.

14:31And it just happened that in city of Las Vegas,

14:35the same consultant was gonna work with them.

14:38So, he was like giving me total praise

14:40because he's like, man, you already know what you're doing.

14:42It's gonna make things a lot easier over here.

14:44So, city of Las Vegas called me, went in to the interview,

14:49got the job, packed up my bags, left Maryland

14:52and came to city of Las Vegas.

14:54That was a five year plan.

14:56Anybody else have a five year plan?

14:59Yeah, now it's going on 26 years.

15:02So, I worked there for city of Las Vegas for a little while

15:05and then all of a sudden I started seeing some friends.

15:09Oh, I'm leaving, where you going?

15:11Going to a place called Henderson.

15:12A bunch of people were migrating

15:14from city of Las Vegas to Henderson.

15:17And I'm like Henderson, man, it's like around the,

15:19almost like around the world.

15:20It's so far away back in the day, you know.

15:22We used to say, let's go to Henderson and go out.

15:25And I'm like, man, it's like 45 minutes.

15:26We can't do that.

15:28But a lot of people did leave and come to Henderson.

15:31So, I said to myself, I better look into Henderson.

15:34What does Henderson have to offer

15:36that is better than city of Las Vegas?

15:40A lot, you have a lot.

15:43So, I heard from the people that went.

15:46They were all happy.

15:46I'm like, okay, planning job opened up.

15:48I applied.

15:50I was fortunate enough to get selected to come to Henderson.

15:53And now, 21 years later, here I am standing in front of you

15:57as assistant city manager.

15:58So, again, thank you for that.

16:00And I still see a few people here

16:02that still migrated with us.

16:04A recent retiree, Sean Robertson,

16:07you can catch him down the street there playing guitar.

16:10He was also a person from city of Las Vegas.

16:13But this place just seems so much like home.

16:16I mean, you all are just, we all work together.

16:19It's just amazing and the things that we can accomplish

16:23when we work together.

16:29If you only knew how many times I changed this script

16:32up here and I'm just not gonna pick it up

16:33'cause I feel comfortable in front of all of you.

16:36And I just wanna say it's been a long journey

16:39and what I've learned over the time.

16:42It's about what you do, how you show up.

16:46Are you consistent?

16:48Are you making the right connections?

16:52You gotta build those relationships inside and outside.

16:56It's so important about what you do

16:58and how you show up every day

17:00to be able to be ready for that next position.

17:05I woke up one day and I got a phone call.

17:08My previous supervisor got pulled upstairs

17:12to assistant city manager.

17:14And guess what?

17:15We like to have you as director.

17:16You never know when something's going to open up.

17:21So, you know, my question to you all,

17:22are you taking the right steps?

17:24Are you doing the things every day

17:26to show people that you are the next person?

17:30You should be the next person selected

17:31for that next position.

17:33And I feel comfortable that I give it 100%.

17:36I show up every day.

17:39I like making connections.

17:40I like to joke around.

17:41I like to talk with all of you

17:43and making connections with the consultants on the outside.

17:47I'll bring up Lee Farris.

17:48My first big project here in Henderson

17:52was a little project called Cadence.

17:54I'm sure a lot of you've heard of Cadence.

17:57We started that project back in 2006,

17:59soon after I started here.

18:01And we went back and forth

18:03and we were in the room duking it out

18:06and making sure we got the right development standards

18:08and the development agreement.

18:10And we came out of there,

18:12and I think it was around October of 2007,

18:15and we were able to get that project approved

18:17by the city council.

18:19It's those kind of relationships that you can build

18:21that we're still talking to each other after so many years.

18:25And I can go on and on and on

18:26about all those types of projects

18:28and the relationships that we've built over the years.

18:31But I think it's really key just for you to remember,

18:33build the good relationships, show up every day,

18:38do what you can.

18:39And when your boss asks you to take on a project

18:42that sounds not so cool, there's a reason for that.

18:45They want to challenge you.

18:46They want you to grow.

18:48So you are ready for that next step.

18:52You know, Stephanie gave me a call

18:54and asked me to be interim.

18:56It was quick.

18:58And then two months later,

19:00she asked me to be in this permanent spot.

19:03You never know what tomorrow's gonna bring.

19:05So make sure you're preparing yourself every day.

19:08'Cause I know all of you are very bright, great team.

19:11I would, well, this group here, it's awesome.

19:17It's great.

19:19But I can go on and on and on.

19:20And I just want to say that part of that.

19:23The other thing I want to share with you

19:24is we can't do it ourselves.

19:28We can't.

19:30And if you try, we know what happens, typically fail.

19:33So we can't do it ourselves.

19:35So for me, to all of you, this is team Henderson

19:40and we can all do it together.

19:42So let's make sure we're working together.

19:44We continue to work together.

19:46And I think I want to say one thing about

19:49something the mayor shared the other day with us.

19:52And the mayor shared some powerful words

19:54and I was thinking about it

19:55probably since she's mentioned it last week.

19:57We are better together.

20:00And that is so true.

20:01So team Henderson, let's get this party started

20:04and thank you.

20:19- Now is the time.

20:22Our final public comment.

20:24If you wish to make a public comment,

20:26please come to the podium,

20:27speak directly into the mic

20:28and you'll have three minutes to speak.

20:30- Mayor, there is no one in the public comment queue

20:32at this time.

20:33- I will close the public comment

20:35and adjourn the meeting at this time.

20:37The redevelopment agency meeting will begin at 3.30.

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