View from the fray

At first, I mistake Julie Sferrazza for a member of the broadcast media, a young reporter just out of college, maybe. She’s wearing heels and a long black coat with a fur collar. Her eyelids sparkle with a hint of glitter. Stylish blonde hair frames her face as she looks directly into a camera held by Jan Chastain of Jack Rabbit Productions.

“Not having a high school diploma doesn’t make me weak or less of a person,” she tells Chastain and, by extension, all you viewers out there in TV-land. “I’ve picked myself up. Because of decisions I’ve made is where I am today.”

Those are her exact words.

Where is Julie Sferrazza today? She’s here at the corner of West Second and Vine streets taking part in an anti-trench photo op on opening day of depressed railway construction. The youngish wife of Washoe County Commissioner Pete Sferrazza (a former mayor of Reno) and step-mom of Reno City Councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza is running for the Ward 4 seat on the Reno City Council.

The main—and perhaps only—plank in her platform seems to be opposition to that damned trench. It’s not clear where she stands on other issues.

Julie doesn’t show up to debates, it seems, and didn’t bother meeting with the editorial board of the Reno Gazette-Journal, either. Before the primary race, she cracked a dumb and derogatory joke about one of her opponents. Since that hit the papers, she’s likely been coached to keep her mouth shut.

What decisions has Julie made that make her a fine example to young women? Well, besides dropping out of school and surviving what she describes as an “abusive marriage,” she did manage to snag a guy with some money, political influence and a catchy name that’s hard to spell.

It’s that name that could get Julie elected to the Reno City Council, where she’ll sit next to her stepdaughter and make decisions not on shoe styles or make-up but on spending millions of dollars, guiding Reno’s future and restoring downtown.

On Monday, all three Sferrazzas posed for photos together with Reno mayoral candidate Mike Robinson, trench critic Mike Tracy, County Commissioner Jim Galloway, Reno City Councilpersons Dave Rigdon and Toni Harsh and half a dozen other anti-trench regulars. It’s a small protest punctuated by a few rockin’ covers by the Dane Rinehart Band. Guitarist Mario Guzman confesses ambivalence toward the trench: “To be honest, I’m pretty neutral on it.”

While the band plays Creed’s “My Sacrifice,” the campaign manager for a council candidate who lost in the primaries holds up a sign urging voters to support Dave Rigdon. That makes some sense. Rigdon at least has experience, the ability to engage in solid critical thinking and a willingness to ask questions.

Julie hasn’t demonstrated any of the above.

Even though RN&R has some serious questions about the campaigning practices of Julie’s opponent, Dwight Dortch, we have to concede that he’s far more qualified than Pete’s wife.

That’s something Ward 4 voters need to consider. If elected, Julie may be one of the more attractive council members ever. But cute works better on TV than it does in City Hall.