Colleagues and Cocktails
Ever wonder what the City of Reno is spending your hard-earned taxpayer dollars on. Legal stuff. Lots and lots of legal stuff.
Back on March 11, 2024, in Washoe County District Court, Judge David Hardy, Department 15 heard the legal wranglings of Jenny Brekhus vs. City of Reno. Our burdened courts are being overwhelmed with lawsuits because our folks at Reno City Hall just can’t all seem to get along with one another. Come on City of Reno Council members, City Manager, and Reno City Attorney staff do better.
As Mark Robison, Reno Gazette Journal reported, the case hinges on different interpretations of a city law described multiple times in court as “odd.” Judge Hardy will need to determine whether that “odd” law means Brekhus missed a deadline to file her hearing request. Timing seems to be everything in this case. The judge gave the lawyers two weeks to come back with arguments. We’ve been trolling the District Court’s website to see if a transcript of the March 11th hearing would be made available, and low and behold we found it, and have posted it for our readers to review. After all, ultimately, you’re paying for the lawyer from Dickinson Wright, with taxpayer dollars. This all might hinge on a 2002 United State Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit case Amtrack v. Morgan.
But, hey, speaking of taxpayer dollars, now more of your money is being used with the City of Reno Council members voting on March 27, 2024, to approve an additional $75,000 to pay for the outside attorney hired to represent the City of Reno in the lawsuit brought by Council member Jenny Brekhus. Dickinson Wright, the law firm representing the City of Reno, was initially earmarked $75,000 but they have already billed $60,000 and so the city is going to ramp up the payment to $150,000. Brekhus had left the dais for the vote, and Council member Meghan Ebert argued that this item should not have been on the consent agenda, and then it passed.
Now remember this lawsuit is due to Brekhus wanting a hearing to determine if she was a victim of retaliation, and the city’s director of Human Resources denying the request. Brekhus argues City Manger Doug Thornley retaliated against her for making a complaint stating he was drinking on the job, and thus Thornley barred Brekhus from city staff, curtailing her ability to represent her constituents, you know her job, to the tune of $136,985 total pay and benefits annually per Transparent Nevada.
Picon has now heard via a well-placed source at the City of Reno that this is not the only incident of retaliatory treatment of council members and to expect to hear more soon. Does this mean that taxpayers will need to pay additional outside council to represent the City of Reno for additional alleged bad behavior?