Untitled Document

Name: Patricia D. Cafferata

This is my letter about some of the important issues/events/causes in my lifetime. The reason I hesitated to write this letter is because I'm not sure which of the many causes or issues I've been involved with to describe. The following cover a few of my efforts from 1980 to 1999.

My most recent cause was as the lead lawyer on the "Saving the Mapes Hotel" case. The Reno City Council and Redevelopment Agency bought the hotel a couple of years ago after it had been closed for 18 years. In September, the council voted to demolish the hotel, decorated in Art Deco style, built in 1947 by Charles Mapes. It was the first hotel/casino built in Nevada. The Sky Room on the top floor overlooked the town to the East and to the West. On the north side of the room was the stage where famous entertainers performed nightly. On the south side was a long wooden bar.

The plan is to implode the building on Super Bowl Sunday, January 30, 2000. The Mapes is listed on the National Register of Most Endangered Buildings. This will be the first building on the list to be destroyed since 1949.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation retained me to join the Truckee Meadows Heritage Trust and four Reno citizens (Jon Dewey, Rosemary DiGrazia, Antoinette Mollett Harsh, and Nanna R. Rassu) in a lawsuit to prevent the implosion. The other attorneys on the case were Sue Trimmer and Jeff Dickerson.

We filed the case in the Second Judicial District Court, and it was assigned to Judge James Hardesty. We alleged the City Council violated the Open Meeting Law when they discussed the Mapes in a secret meeting prior to the public meeting and vote. The judge agreed that the officials violated the law, but ruled they "cured" the violation when they met openly and discussed the Mapes' future. Therefore, he said the building could be demolished.

We appealed the case to the Nevada Supreme Court where the matter is still pending. (It will be decided long after the Mapes is gone.) There were two other cases filed after that, one in district court and one in federal court. I was not involved in either case because I took my mother, Barbara Vucanovich, to England and Ireland for the Christmas holidays.

For me it is sad to see part of Reno's history destroyed. I attended Bishop Manogue High School during the 1950's. I remember my Senior Prom in the Sky Room of the hotel, and a St. Mary's Hospital Guild fashion show luncheon where my brothers Mike and Ken and I modeled on the stage of the Sky Room. I also recall the Coach Room on the main floor with windows that overlooked the Truckee River. I always felt terribly grown up when I ate lunch in the Coach Room. There was a piano bar and long bar down the steps from the main eating area. Because of my age I didn't spent any time in either the Sky Room or Coach Room bars. Both rooms were decorated predominately in red and black.

Besides running for and being elected to public office, I have been involved in other elective matters, primarily the initiative petition, the referendum, and the recall petition process. In the 1980 election I vigorously campaigned for a property tax limitation initiative that the voters rejected, when the school teachers' lobby group spent over $100,000 to defeat the proposal. They ran a clever ad campaign likening property tax limitation to a chocolate covered lemon.

In the early 1990's I provided legal services to the Douglas County voters' group named "RAMP" on five initiative petitions and to a citizen group in White Pine County on a referendum. The former group's initiatives were on land fill disposal issues, and the latter group's referendum was to repeal the county commissioners' newly imposed land fill fee. Both efforts were successful qualified for the ballot, and the voters voted overwhelmingly in support of the petitions.

I have been legal counsel to several citizens groups in recall election efforts. My successful efforts include recalling Floyd Lamb, Lincoln County Commissioner, Tom Dill, Lincoln County District Attorney, and Bill Lee, Mayor of Mesquite. The unsuccessful efforts included Heather Estes, Lander County Commissioner, Will Mattley, Lander County District Attorney, and Dorothy Phillips, Georgianne Timko, and Charlie Basso, all Ely City Council members.

I assisted other groups in this types of efforts, but did not go to court to present any arguments in support or opposition to a petition.

All these legal matters have one thing in common. They are more political in nature than legal, although the applicable law is complicated and not well defined. Many of these cases are lost because the activist group did not know the law or misunderstood it when collecting signatures on the petitions. These failings make the petitions difficult to defend in court.

In all the cases, I've enjoyed the challenge of putting together what I'd hoped were winning arguments. Additionally, I always met many interesting Nevadans, most of whom were frustrated by the lack of response from their elected officials.