There are only a few weeks left until the midterm elections on Nov. 3. Reno’s Republican mayoral candidate, Kathleen Taylor, visited the Reynolds School of Journalism on Oct. 8 to hold a town hall broadcast on KOLO8 ABC News Now. Overall, the event was informative about Taylor’s policies and goals, but also about who she is as a candidate — uninspiring.
Going into this event, I had a limited idea of who Taylor is. Like many people, I had known her as a councilwoman and seen bits and pieces of her campaign on social media. She seemed like a generic candidate, and had the whole ‘I’m ready to be your mayor’ and ‘I understand the community’ approach to advertising. Seeing her speak just a few feet in front of me led me to believe she was just that: a generic candidate.
The way Taylor spoke about the homeless crisis, Flock cameras and data centers did not show a clear vision; at times, things she said were conflicting. There were moments that were confusing, where her responses made it unclear exactly what her standpoint was.
Taylor’s mayoral website outlines her plans to tackle homelessness: “Reno already has tools, partners, and strategies in place. The immediate need is execution, coordination, and accountability,” the website reads. “Kathleen will focus on implementing what exists, measuring results, and maintaining consistent standards in public spaces.” The statements are pretty vague – maybe purposefully so, because the answer she gave on tackling homelessness at the town hall was much more telling.
A point Taylor repeatedly emphasized was that she aims to “enforce the laws”. When asked if that meant she wanted the homeless to be arrested, she replied, “I don’t think I would say that. I would say that this community is extremely compassionate and we have a lot of resources … We’re always going to start with ‘can we get you help?’”
On the surface, this seems like a good response, that is, if you ignore that she did not give a clear yes or no if she wanted the homeless arrested. Currently, homelessness is essentially criminalized in the City of Reno. People camping or sleeping on the streets can be charged with a misdemeanor before they receive any rehabilitation or other resources.
Taylor emphasised that there are “the same 100 to 115 people cycling through the justice system.” As to how she will stop that cycle, “we’re going to enforce the laws,” she repeated. “We’re going to have a zero-tolerance policy, and I am really excited to announce that we are going to put the resources into law enforcement.”
This is a strange response to give after claiming to have a compassionate community. She did not provide any response about how the cycle can end. In fact, her solution would only push more people through the justice system. I was led to question whether Taylor actually wanted to invest in resources and programs to improve the current systems, or just get the homeless out of sight, out of mind.
On top of this, research shows that zero-tolerance policing does not work in the long term.
While in the short term there may be a sharp decline in crime, over time these policies are known to cause public distrust, surge incarceration and overwhelm the judiciary. This can lead to a variety of other negative effects.
Based on Taylor’s support for more resources to policing, I was surprised to hear her standpoint on Flock cameras. For some context, Flock cameras were brought into Reno in 2024, and were unanimously supported by the city council during the time Taylor served as councilwoman. However, Reno will not be utilizing the Flock system anymore, Taylor announced at the event.
When asked about the ending of Flock’s contract with the city, Taylor said, “I think it’s fantastic.” She then went into how she knows that we have a fundamental right to privacy, a value she “cares about in her core.” This was a much stronger response than what she has said in the past about the company. Given her support for the expansion of police resources, this seemed like a surprise to me. However, I believe Taylor is also well aware of the controversy Flock cameras have faced this year and the widespread distaste for them from many Americans.
Recently, there have been many red flags raised about Flock cameras’ accuracy across the country. Flock reports about a 1% inaccuracy rate, while one police department flagged that 71% of plate readings were inaccurate. Even using Flock’s own numbers, in Reno, where about 100,000 people can travel by car in a day, that means there could be 1,000 inaccurate plate readings a day. These false readings can dangerously mistake an innocent civilian as an active criminal. It’s already happened in Florida, where local police arrested a woman for multiple felonies, including vehicular homicide, for a crime she didn’t have anything to do with — all due to Flock misreading her license plate.
Taylor’s disapproval of Flock cameras was easily her best point of the night, but she did not address her standpoint on using other vendors, such as the company Sparks is under contact with, Axon. Taylor will vote in the city council meeting on Oct. 21 on a possible new contract.
Her position felt a little flat. It does not seem like public privacy and security is one of Taylor’s priorities. No standpoint on it is listed on her website, and her conversation about privacy and Flock surveillance was maybe two or three minutes long, and went without addressing all of the misreading issues Flock has. In retrospect, it felt even more dull given her following talk about her support for data centers, which also pose security and privacy risks.
Taylor’s support for data centers is not unknown. She is the only councilmember who voted against a data center moratorium for Reno, and has also appeared in support of the groundbreaking of Centra’s RNO2 project, also known as the Keystone data center.
The project is being met with controversy even though construction is not finished. Critics have alleged that the data center deviates 10% from permitted plans and its promotional materials are advertising higher operating power than what was approved. The data center’s power consumption is going to be kept confidential.
When Taylor was asked about her position on data centers, she started off her response by saying that she does not believe data centers are going away. “They support things like engineering and healthcare, but also create indirect job opportunities,” she said.
Taylor specifically stated that she is “always going to support good projects in this community that provide good-paying jobs.” She emphasized that she is going to be a mayor that listens and “doesn’t shut the door on business.”
Taylor’s support of data centers is an issue; the damage these centers do can be irreversible. Data centers try to present a good image, touting local economic growth, jobs and technological advancements, but they have far more downsides than benefits. Data centers need immense amounts of water to cool servers. They only employ about 50 people after construction, can pollute local soil and water with chemicals, and are known to be very loud; the list goes on. Nationwide disapproval ratings for data centers are at 69%, according to a poll by NBC News.
Taylor seems to buy into the “trickle-down economics” that data centers may bring to Reno. She is worried about the possibility that closing the door on one type of business will scare other industries from coming to Reno, and that seems to be a driving factor in her opposition to a complete ban on data centers. All of this makes Taylor’s support of data centers a bit distasteful; she is playing the side of huge tech corporations over what people support and want in their communities.
Overall, the town hall was very informative on Taylor’s platform. It was good to get to hear more about her opinions outside of a 30-second Instagram reel, but her candidacy remains unappealing and uninspiring. It is hard to get past her avoidance of direct responses to certain issues, and due to this, it’s unclear what vision she has to improve Reno. Though she does care about Reno and is very passionate about her views, that is not enough to make up for her policy positions. While I don’t believe she will run the city into the ground if elected, Taylor might not be the right choice for our next mayor.
