News - December 30, 2016 - by Ray Hagar

By Ray Hagar

Nevada Newsmakers

Reno City Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus has taken exception with a recent Reno Gazette-Journal editorial board opinion that the Reno City Council is "in danger of becoming the region’s most dysfunctional government panel."

The RGJ opinion was based on legal bills for a sexual harassment investigation into former Reno City Manager Andrew Clinger that have grown to more than $500,000 while slow-moving investigation kept the public in the dark for nearly six months. The city on Tuesday released two highly anticipated reports about the complaints and investigators' findings although they were heavily redacted, according to the RGJ.

She pointed, instead, the the council's successes during the past four years.

"I think it is not entirely a fair description," she said. "I think that if you look at 2012, where the city was -- we were negotiating with bond holders, we were under the watchful eye of state regulators and we were creatively managing cash flow and had laid off a third of the work force.

"That was just four years ago, OK?" Brekhus continued. "We have been rebuilding core services as we can. We've made some tremendous progress in how we manage the city's finances. We paid down a lot of debt -- about $110 million -- and we've just put in some measures to safeguard us from the next downturn. That is tremendous progress that needed to be done. So I don't think anyone can take anything away from what the council has done in the past four years -- and it is the same seven folks more or less -- that have been on and will be going forward, so there's that."

Yet when people consider the way the Clinger debacle was handled, Brekhus said the RGJ criticism was "a fair accusation."

"When you have that much of a disgruntled nature in your executive level administration, it shows that things are not working well as they should be -- and our charter gives so much authority to our city manager. So when when you have that not working well, your organization is not going to be working well and so I think to that degree, it is a fair accusation."

In June, three women filed sexual harassment complaints against Clinger. A first investigation decided Clinger didn't violate the city's harassment policy. Then, the claimants raised concerns how that investigation was handled, so the city council decided to re-investigate, along with subsequent complaints about a hostile work environment at City Hall and concerns of retaliation.

In September, the council fired Clinger, paying him a $227,000 severance package.

Clinger, Nevada's former state budget director, maintains his innocence.

A new lawyer representing the women raised questions about the second investigation. The women at the center of the complaint were not been interviewed by the investigator in the second investigation because of their lawyer's concern that their statements could be used against them in court, Brekhus said.

Brekhus voted against Clinger's severance package, saying to was "above and beyond" what his contract dictated. She said Clinger was nearing the end of his "shelf life' as city manager anyway.

Brekhus and Clinger have a frosty relationship. Clinger's lawyer has threatened to sue Brekhus for criticism of his client.

"Having the city manager going out the way that he did,  it's a terrible way to have something go down," Brekhus said. "City managers usually have a shelf life of about five-to-seven years and he was reaching his. He, I always felt, was a very good person for 2012 or 2010 when he came on. I wasn't there. He was a fiscal person ... but we're Nevada, boom or bust is in our DNA. But as we boom -- it was released today, we're the second fastest growing state in the nation -- managing growth at a city level is a big strategy, big job, and I didn't feel he was the guy for that."