The Fernley City Council budget meeting on May 8 escalated into a shouting match after a request from councilman Albert Torres for an item in the city’s budget to not fund the city manager position.
The council was discussing funding for two engineering positions along with a request by councilwoman Felicity Zoberski and councilman Joe Mendoza for a line item for public safety when Torres said he would like an item added to the agenda for the May 21 meeting to not fund the city manager’s position.
The rest of the council seemed stunned at the proposal, and after a 10-second pause, Zoberski asked if Torres’ request needed to be seconded. City attorney Aaron Mouritsen responded that no second was needed, because the meeting was a workshop and the council was just making sure it had everything ready to discuss on the 21st, when the council approves its final budget.
Councilman Ryan Hanan then asked if the council was going to discuss what Torres proposed.
“You can discuss it today, or you can leave that discussion for the 21st,” Mouritsen said. “I would just caution all members of council to not discuss character or competence or anything along those lines.”
“I’m a little caught off guard, because I didn’t see that coming,” Hanan said. “I think the best way to move forward with something like this is to hold a hearing, a competency and character hearing for the city manager, and notice everyone that’s involved and having that discussion. I’m absolutely opposed to just putting it in the budget without any explanation whatsoever. Nobody has discussed this with me, I’m sort of caught off guard.”
“Yeah, me too,” Lau responded. “I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m a little mad right now.”
Hanan said if the council is going to eliminate a position, it owes it to the employees to give them the opportunity to have evidence presented against them and for them to respond back with evidence to the contrary if they wish.
“I am not on board with this, in this capacity,” Hanan said. “If you would like to create or at the end of this, ask for a future agenda item for a hearing, I’m okay with that. I would love to hear the reason.”
Lau then interjected again.
“I’m next Albert, I’m next, Albert,” he said.
“I didn’t say anything, Stan,” Torres responded.
“Shut up Albert, shut up,” Lau said.
“Don’t talk to me like that,” Torres replied.
While mayor Neal McIntyre attempted to calm Lau, who was seated to McIntyre’s left, Lau stood up facing Torres, who was seated to McIntyre’s right and said, “I’ll talk to you any way I want.”
“Really?” said Torres, as city attorney Aaron Mouritsen asked McIntyre to take a break.
“You’re going to be a child now?” Torres asked.
“You’re a child, you’re a child,” shouted Lau. “I had the floor next, you need to shut up, Albert.”
McIntyre then called for a recess, and when the council returned 12 minutes later, he announced for the record that he had asked Lau to leave the meeting.
When the meeting reconvened, councilman Joe Mendoza who was participating in the meeting via Zoom, asked if the city could stop interrupting the Zoom recording when a situation like that occurs.
“I think we need to stop interrupting the recording during a public session when something like this happens,” Mendoza said. “This is two budget meetings in a row where we had this type of response. Where do we go from here and why is this allowed to continue to happen?
A similar incident occurred during the council’s April 3 preliminary budget workshop, when Lau yelled at Zoberski during a discussion, and told McIntyre to shut up when McIntyre tried to intervene.
“Even if the recording is stopped, as it usually is during recesses, there are still cameras in the courtroom and that is being recorded,” Mouritsen said. However, he later added that there is no audio recording on those cameras.
“I’m literally asking a question because this is unacceptable behavior,” Mendoza said.
Torres’ request stemmed from a discussion during the council’s April 16 meeting. While giving a presentation on public records and personnel records, Mendoza asked Mouritsen why the city manager is not responsible to the council, as the other appointed positions in the city are.
At that time, Mouritsen explained that there are two forms of government in the state of Nevada. He said in the strong mayor form of government, such as Fernley has adopted, the mayor is not a member of the council and instead runs the executive branch of government.
“In the strong mayor form of government, the city manager should be working directly for that strong mayor, and not for council,” Mouritsen said. “The job of the city manager is to take what the mayor wants to get done, his policies, his desires, his ideas, and then implement those policies and ideas. The city manager should be part of the executive branch, he should be working for the executive branch and not you as council as the legislative branch.”
Mendoza said that concerns him.
“We’ve all been voted on to make decisions for our community and yet it sounds like it stands only with the mayor,” he said. “The mayor directs the city manager what to do, not what council does.”
Mouritsen said, as an analogy to the federal government, the mayor is like the president of the United States and the city manager is his chief of staff, and the council members are Congress.
“And so, you each have your separate area that you’re supposed to be running,” Mouritsen said. “In small governments it’s kind of harder to do, but we try to do our best to kind of keep those lines separate so that the mayor is not impinging on the council’s power, and also so that the council isn’t impinging on any of the powers of the mayor.
“His power should be executive, and he should manage the executive capacities, the day-to-day functions, and you should be the lawmakers and the budget masters, running what the budget is and also implementing what the laws are and things like that,” Mouritsen added.
Torres responded that, using Mouritsen’s analogy, if Congress wanted to get rid of the president’s chief of staff they could just not fund it.
Potentially, yes, Mouritsen answered. “You’re not required to fund any positions.”
With no further discussion on Torres’ request, Mouritsen said that if a council member wanted to request an agenda item, it would need to be submitted in writing in accordance with city policy.
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