City Gives The Finger To Citizens

A few weeks ago, we posted an op-ed about the Mesquite city government slipping back into their old, secretive, behind-closed-doors ways.

We had hoped that a literary shot across the bow might wake up those purportedly in control of the city and remind them why the council has so many new faces, and why voters have been so angry for the last few years.

On Tuesday, the Mesquite city government basically told the voters "fuck you."

Longtime good old boy Kurt Sawyer, the acting City Manager, recently manufactured one of the city's classic back room moves, elevating Bryan Dangerfield from his job as Economic Development Director to fill the job of Leisure Services Director being vacated by Rich Bohne.

A lot of people believe that Bryan Dangerfield has been completely incompetent in his previous role, particularly his questionable activities involving the Desert Falls debacle.  Yet instead of doing what most reasonable entities would do, terminating what appears to be a sub-par employee, he is given a promotion.  He will go from supervising one person to supervising a department of dozens.

Coincidentally, the Economic Development Department may possibly be disbanded in the coming year, a department that even Sawyer admitted has "provided very few things."

Of course, it has to be another coincidence that Sawyer and Dangerfield traveled to Wyoming for a few days recently, allegedly on an invite to talk business with NCS, another company that is the latest big dreamer scheming to capitalize on the huge and valuable plot of Desert Falls land. 

So Sawyer makes the call to give Dangerfield the plum position, without ever opening the position to job applicants.  The job isn't posted publicly, so nobody gets a chance to apply, including some people who might actually be qualified for the gig.

Sawyer also didn't bother to involve the city council in his decision, despite the fact that he's only an "acting" city manger.  Why would anyone temporarily filling a job make such a huge decision without involving his bosses?
Also, while online polls aren't very scientific or particularly accurate, last week's poll on this site asked the public whether Dangerfield should be made the new Leisure Services Director.  In that poll, 24 out of the 25 respondents said "no."

It gets better.

Last week, the council rightfully decided to include an item on Tuesday's agenda regarding Dangerfield's appointment.

At Tuesday's City Council meeting, that agenda item was nowhere to be found.

So who's responsible for the item's disappearing act?

Mesquite's City Attorney.

City Attorney Cheryl Hunt once again did what she does best: finding obscure Nevada statutes to justify hiding decisions and actions from the public.

Hunt claims she found a law that says the appointment of a high ranking city official is not allowed to be on the agenda.

Huh?

It's inconceivable that any state would book a law that prohibits a city government from discussing the hiring of a key position.  And if they did, an aggrieved city government should fight such lunacy.

Instead of doing what a good city attorney would do, finding a way to make sure the citizens are involved in every city process whenever possible, she once again succeeded in making sure that the citizens get ostracized and screwed.

What makes this even more bizarre is the fact that, by law, the mayor must sign off on all city contracts.  But according to Hunt's claim, the mayor will have to do this one in secret, and not allow it to be discussed in an open forum.

Sounds pretty unlikely, but when your mission appears to be locating arcane rules to continuously exclude the public, you can always find a way.

Oddly, giving the finger to the public isn't the city council's fault this time.  The collection of well meaning but procedurally inexperienced neophytes is being abused and taken advantage of by the more seasoned staff that they are supposed to be supervising.

Now we'll get to see what this council is made of. 

There are some very real and concrete steps that must be taken.

For starters, and this has been brought up before, the current position of City Manager needs to be eliminated.  It has been this city's Achilles heel for nearly a decade.  The hard decisions about a city's future must be made by elected officials, not paper-pushing bureaucrats and hired hands filled with their own self-importance.  In a democracy, there must be accountability.

In place of a City Manager, the city should create and appoint a City Administrator, someone who handles the day-to-day operations, but must kick all important decisions upstairs.  It's not as fast or efficient a model, but is better reflective of a PUBLIC agency.

Until then, Sawyer should be removed as interim City Manager.  In a perfect world, he should be fired and removed from the city's employ altogether for running this back room game, but Hunt will surely be able to find some laws to protect and justify his actions.  Also, he has given Mesquite 21 years of service, and that has to count for something.

The council also needs to dramatically change the city's operational ordinances.  All department directors must be approved by the city council.  It will make the process more transparent, and will return the power and responsibility for the running of this city back to those who were elected to run it.

Another long overdue change is the firing of Cheryl Hunt as City Manager.  She has shown repeatedly that she is not working in the best interests of transparency for the people of Mesquite.  It's not all her fault.  In the past she has been bullied by some powerful people at City Hall.  But Mesquite needs a City Attorney who will scour the underbrush to find ways to make sure the people of this city are involved in the process, not someone skilled in finding rules to exclude them.  If that means we have to make the City Attorney's position an elected one specifically aimed at protecting the peoples' interests over the bureaucrats, then so be it.

Finally, the council should find a rule or law that allows them to overturn Sawyer's decision and return Dangerfield to his previous position.  Technically Dangerfield hasn't done anything to warrant being fired (although a deeper investigation into the Desert Falls deals might possibly unearth a few); and unlike the City Attorney position, he doesn't serve at the will of the council.  However, he should be allowed to go down with his ship.  He hasn't done a very good job running the Economic Development department.  He would be legitimately eliminated once the council decides next year to euthanize this failed agency.

In Bohne's place, longtime loyal Mesquite Leisure Department employee Nick Montoya should be considered for the interim head.  He has worked hard for this city, has given back to the community on his own time as a football coach, and knows the inner workings of the Rec Center and Leisure Services Department better than anyone else, including possibly Bohne himself.  The position should then be opened for applicants, and a hiring process begun.  If Montoya comes up anywhere near the top of that pile, he should be given the job.

So while it's tough to blame the new city council for this mess, they will be held accountable if they prove unwilling or unable to take the steps necessary to clean it up and keep it from happening again.

As was proven dramatically in the spring of 2011...the people of Mesquite really are watching, and they have shown that they are willing to make the hard decisions and take action at the polls when their elected officials will not.