Scene In Passing: No fooling around on April Fool’s Day

There was no April Fool’s Day foolin’ around Tuesday inside the Carson City Community Center Sierra Room, at least from my perspective, or in news from the wider world.

None that I could detect, anyway.

In the Sierra Room, some serious capital city citizens spent eight hours pondering the personalities, preferences, propensities and proclivities of five people seeking to become city government’s next city manager. The five showed up one after another to answer a programmed series of questions about leadership and backgrounds, appearing before the City Manager Advisory Committee, which will provide impressions to the Board of Supervisors. See more on the front page.

The board next month is set to interview finalists, all five or fewer if they make cuts on April 17. Those interviews are scheduled May 2.

Outside the Sierra Room, the city, state, nation and world went right on chugging toward whatever fate has in store.

At Carson Mall, some people continued checking out the new Sportsman’s Warehouse shopping experience, an opportunity only available since last weekend with the yet-to-come grand opening next weekend.

In the state, it was no April Fool’s Day joke Tuesday when voter registrations were reported up 5,027 for March. That was up from the number registered across Nevada the previous month. Some may think that’s progress; others may prefer the news that more than 200,000, or about 18 percent, are registered as nonpartisan.

Nationally, the Standard and Poor’s 500 index closed at 1,885.52, up 13.18, hitting a new nominal record. The news was attributed in differing quarters to Fed Chief Janet Yellen on Monday allaying fears about interest rates, saying they would remain low, or to economic reports on Tuesday about manufacturing and business.

The Institute of Supply Management reported a March manufacturing reading of 53.7, up from 53.2 the previous month; the Commerce Department reported construction spending in February rose 0.1 percent after falling 0.2 percent in January. Analysts presumed both were signs that winter weather woes were giving way to milder weather effects on the economy.

So let’s return to the Sierra Room. No decision was made, but it was an exemplary way to see local government at work. It was a great way to introduce our next city manager, whichever candidate emerges to take that role. Watch the videotape on access TV when it comes to a television set near you. It’s your city, and the committee meeting was the most important thing that happened Tuesday. Again, of course, from my perspective.

No foolin’.

John Barrette covers Carson City government and business. He can be reached at jbarrette@nevadaappeal.com.