Recovering Mayor Leads City Council Meeting

Published in the High Desert Advocate January 22, 2021 Edition.

By Corinne Copelan

Last Tuesday evening, January 19, 2021, West Wendover Mayor Corona was presiding the City Council meeting. He should have been home has he just had successfully undergo surgery on January 8th, a mere 11 days before. But he said that this meeting and our community’s mental health are too important for him  to sit this one out as “the City Council will once again be discussing our proposed agreement with @talkspace”. The Mayor was adamantly “For” hiring the firm and paying the high fees, close to $100,000. for a year, to help the local Wendover community in its struggle with mental health problems.(if he could have voted we are sure it would have been a Yes for him) But even with very convincing arguments, only 2 councilmen/women voted Yes for it, councilwoman Kathy Durham and councilman Nick Flores. Three councilmen and woman voted against: councilman Izzy Gutierrez, councilwoman Jasie Holm, and new councilman Robert Trujillo.

Here are how the arguments went:

Ryan Tangero, Wendover probation Officer talked at the podium about this being good for youth who need to stay away from drugs.

Wendover Municipal Court, Judge Phil. Lesmer,  talked about part of his sentences to be getting counselling. 

Mayor Daniel Corona:  “And let’s not forget our Senior citizens; we deliver them food to our seniors every two weeks, and in between they might not see anybody in person. They might want to use the service too. May be this starts destigmatization of mental health. 

Councilwoman Jasie Holm: “But the Clinic is going to re-brand  his mental health. Nevada Health Centers can help utilize their services(who are not much used right now)”. 

… (later) Councilwoman Jasie Holm: This is a band-aid, this is for a year, then what after a year?

Councilwoman Kathy Durham: Under the utilization of the health  Clinic, the insurance will not cover it, and it is by appointment only, in Salt Lake City, ounce a week compare to this service (@talkspace) were it is every single day.  (talk to your therapist every day by phone or by computer).

…Kathy Durham: Even the Probation Officer said he would use the service, as part of his mentoring, and keeping the teenagers and young adults away from drugs. …Also it has been proven that people who suffer from depression and stress suffer from heart attacks, heart disease. Poor mental health brings poor physical health.

The Mayor: This is (time) to put the money were our mouth is, we do believe it, and we are going to invest…

Put to a vote by Council woman Durham, and seconded by Councilman Flores, but stopped by the City Manager as every city councilman and woman were supposed to vote. And as said earlier, councilman Izzy Gutierrez, councilwoman Jasie Holm, and new councilman Robert Trujillo vote Nay(no), so this motion didn’t pass.  

In other business, there were two items about our local Wendover Ambulance contract. First a Public Hearing and then the action item related to approving the proposed exclusive agreement, and it was approved by the council and renewed after many add ons:

“In regards to the previous discussions, Wendover Ambulance since October has now provided copies of their current approved interlocal/ mutual aid agreements with Elko County, Nevada and Tooele County, Utah as well as their current exclusive agreement with the City of Wendover, Utah. Thus, they have met the conditions laid out by the Governing Board at that October meeting. The proposed exclusive service agreement is attached hereto. There were some changes from the previous agreement given the change to being “exclusive”. There are obligations laid out in the agreement which Wendover Ambulance needs to meet. These include: • Maintaining current the mutual aid agreements with Elko County, Tooele County and the service agreement with Wendover, Utah while our agreement is in effect. (Section 1, E and F) • Ensuring that there are two active units with properly certified crews available at all times to serve the City of West Wendover. (Section 2) Acknowledgement that our first responders are not prohibited from providing emergent and nonemergent first responders services at the scene (Section 2). This issue was discussed in the October meeting to which Lauara indicated that she had no issue with the provision as it would be considered standard with regard to first responders and emergency services working together. As a side note, Lauara is now using her previous legal last name of Lisk. Lastly, the agreement is a 5 year agreement with an option by Wendover Ambulance to extend for an additional 5 year term with notice to the City. And, the agreement has a 30 day out for non-compliance and a 180 day out without cause for either party. I believe the agreement satisfies the concerns discussed at the October meeting. The agreement has been approved by Legal Counsel.”