Since Reno City Manager Sabra Newby took the helm of the city three months ago, she's had to contend with several vacant top positions, a council struggling to deal with an affordable housing crisis and brewing conflict with Washoe County over where development should occur.

Newby, who previously served as an assistant county manager in Clark County, was hired by the Reno City Council in May.

Right now, Newby is working to hire three department directors and an assistant city manager. She's also mulling over whether to keep Assistant Police Chief Jason Soto in his role as acting chief as he continues to work toward the minimum qualifications for the job.

Soto was an officer who was the president of the Reno Police Protective Association when he was tapped by former City Manager Andrew Clinger, with the support of Mayor Hillary Schieve, to fill the chief's position in 2015. Soto did not have the requisite bachelor's degree, five years of managerial experience or the necessary certifications from the Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) commission.

Soto now has an associate's degree in criminal science and has obtained his POST management certificates.

Newby also has arrived at a time the city is struggling to cope with tax coffers that haven't kept up with an economic revival that's putting a squeeze on affordable housing.

Newby sat down with the Reno Gazette-Journal to discuss these issues and more. The questions and her answers have been edited and condensed for brevity.

RGJ: You have several key openings in your leadership team right now: finance director, human resources director, communications director and an assistant city manager. How are you dealing with the openings?

Newby: I've committed to doing a recruitment for all of these positions. Even internally I think we have some good candidates. I'm looking for attitude and aptitude. The internal candidates are great, but they are going to need to compete against the best the region and the United states has to offer really.

RGJ: Many new executives bring in a team they trust. Why is it important to you to do a formal recruitment process?

Newby: I know that a lot of people come in to this position want to bring their own crew with them, that's not me. I don’t think the organization is helped by Sabra bringing in Sabra's crew. My goal is to build a core of really strong professionals to add to the core that we already have here. That is the way you set up an organization for success in the long term...

One of the things I learned in Clark County, we went out and talked with Southwest (Airlines) and Zappos and one of the things that they said that's always stuck with me is that they hire really slow. They take their time to vet the applications and the candidates and really make a good decision. Because hiring, especially in an organization like ours, is one of the most important things you can do. If you don't get good people into your organization, you are going to have problems down the line.

RGJ: Given you philosophy that candidates should compete with the best from across the region or the country, are you going to keep Assistant Police Chief Soto or conduct a broader search?

Newby: I think so. I think he's done a great job. I've been able to work pretty closely with him and observe him in action and talk with a number of folks within the community and department who work closely with him and I've really been impressed with him. So, I'm moving forward on that. I know he was an unconventional candidate, but I think sometimes hiring for attitude and aptitude are both important and I think he was the right guy at the right time.

RGJ: So you're not concerned that he doesn't strictly meet with minimum qualifications in the ordinance? (The ordinance also allows for a candidate to have "an equivalent combination of training, education and law enforcement experience.")

Newby: I've looked at it and he's gotten a lot of the qualifications since then. He's been working on them. I'm confident he meets the minimum qualifications at this point.

RGJ: When you were hired you said one of your first steps would be to assess the city's financial stability? Have you done that? What's your assessment?

Newby: We are on good footing. It's not great. I'm concerned about the property tax. Obviously, that is always a stumbling block these days… In 2005, when they put the tax caps into place, I don’t think they ever foresaw the great recession. That's something that is concerning to me. The other revenue sources seem to be performing really well. But I don't see tremendous growth in our budget in the near future. I don't see the city of Reno coming back to pre-recession revenue levels anytime soon.

RGJ: How is the relationship with Washoe County and the city of Sparks progressing? There seems to be some brewing conflict on growth and development issues. County Commissioner Kitty Jung recently said on the Nevada Newsmakers radio program that Reno and the county are in an "arms race" for tax revenue from development.

Newby: I don't know that there's an arms race, I certainly wouldn't interpret it that way. We have been working better together. There's a regional plan process that's been kicking off. Among the other managers, everything has been fine. We all recognize that affordable housing and the housing issue is a big one for the region for all of us.

RGJ: The last time the council met to discuss the housing issue, they directed you to assemble a more cohesive strategy to address the problem. How are you coming on that?

Newby: I looked at that meeting and I think they got a bad wrap on the whole being scattered thing because I don't think there's one silver bullet for this. If there was one thing we could do that would solve the problem, then I think we would've done it immediately. But I don't think that's the case. It's going to have to be a combination of a lot of things.

RGJ: When you were hired you said your experience with former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman had taught you what not to do when addressing the issue of homelessness. Now, Reno is pursuing anti-vagrancy ordinances, some of which are modeled off of what Las Vegas did. How is what Reno is doing different from Las Vegas?

Newby: I don't know how familiar you were with the time period when I was talking of, but there was rhetoric (from Goodman) like, 'Take all the homeless people and put them in the prison in Jean. Take all the homeless and put them on busses and ship them home.' That was the rhetoric coming out that led to Vegas' designation as the meanest city. You don't see that here. Everyone on the council, they are very involved and they care about the houseless and about the working poor and they seriously want to find alternatives.