After passionately defending his honor, Fernley City Manager Ben Marchant resigned following a 90-minute budget discussion on May 28 in which three city council members lodged a litany of complaints against him in explaining why they had voted to defund the city manager’s position at a budget meeting the previous week.
At that May 21 meeting, council members Albert Torres, Felicity Zoberski and Joe Mendoza voted to approve the city’s final budget, defunding the city manager’s position. That motion passed 3-2, with council members Stan Lau and Ryan Hanan opposed, but was vetoed by Mayor Neal McIntyre, leaving the city without an approved budget just 10 days before the deadline to submit a final budget to the state Department of Taxation.
At the May 28 meeting, after Torres, Zoberski and Mendoza enumerated their grievances with him, Marchant responded by vowing to do whatever was in the best interest of the city, even if that meant his resignation.
“If that’s what’s stopping the city from going forward, I will respectfully resign on conditions I’ll work out with the mayor,” Marchant said.
When asked at the May 21 meeting to explain the reason they wanted to defund the city manager’s position, Torres said legal counsel had advised them not to discuss the character, conduct, and competence of the city manager, while Mendoza and Zoberski declined to offer their reasons.
At the May 28 meeting, McIntyre opened by insisting that the council needed to pass the budget and expressing his dismay that nobody had stated their reasons for voting to defund the city manager’s position.
“It’s really disheartening to me that this council wants to sit up here and defund the position the city truly does need, and nobody talked about the person in the position,” McIntyre said. “I do believe that Mr. Marchant has done a great job here. But besides the fact is, we need to pass this budget.”
McIntyre said Marchant had been notified that his character, competence, and conduct may be discussed.
In a lengthy statement, Torres detailed several instances of what he claimed were instances of insubordination, dishonesty, and disregard for the city council by Marchant. Torres started by pointing out that the budget was passed at the last meeting, but that one line item was asked to not be funded.
“My attempt to resolve an issue by asking for one line item to be unfunded is not killing the budget,” Torres insisted. “The mayor’s veto of the entire budget for one staff member is killing the budget.”
Saying he was responding to other questions that had been raised, Torres also asserted that his motion on May 21 was legal by state statute, constitutional law and case law; that he is not attempting to change the city’s form of government; and that McIntyre may be unlawfully interfering with the legislative branch—the city council—in the performance of its duties.
Torres then said the council had been approved by legal counsel to address its complaints against Marchant at the May 28 meeting. He alleged that Marchant has blatantly undermined and been insubordinate to the council, specifically listing instances when the council had voted on items to be either included or excluded from the budget, and Marchant had disregarded those votes.
Torres referred to a discussion on whether a new code enforcement officer position should be POST certified, which he said Marchant stated the city attorney and municipal judge agreed it should be. He said the municipal judge, Lori Matheus, was present at the meeting and responded that she had never said that and that she did not agree that it should be a certified position.
In addition, Torres said he told McIntyre that he had received several complaints about Marchant made to him in confidence by city employees.
“These employees had not come forward because they didn’t feel that (human resources) or the mayor would do anything about it, and they didn’t want to be fired or retaliated against by the city manager,” Torres said.
Torres said he was advised by legal counsel not to discuss those matters further until an investigation could be carried out.
Torres said on May 6, he met with McIntyre at the sheriff’s substation in Fernley, a place away from City Hall where they could have an open conversation about his concerns, but that McIntyre dismissed those concerns and said he would veto any motion to defund the city manager’s position.
Responding to a comment by McIntyre that he had solicited evaluations of Marchant’s performance from the council and had received only one, Zoberski said she did submit an evaluation, which she provided a copy of, but said her concerns were never addressed.
“I did not receive a response, an email, or any other form of communication from our city manager or our mayor,” she said. “Although I have attempted numerous times during private meetings, senior staff meetings, strategic meetings, and council to communicate with Mr. Marchant, I cannot say that any of my evaluation concerns have changed.”
Zoberski said there is no transparency and communication from management to the council. She also took exception to a poll that McIntyre posted on Facebook asking residents if they believe the city needs a city manager.
“Creating a poll on a social media platform to gain traction during a budget is not only unethical, but a blown insult to the intelligence of our community,” she said.
McIntyre said he put the poll on Facebook because more people in the city respond to a poll on Facebook than they do coming to a meeting.
Mendoza prefaced his comments by saying he voted yes on that Facebook survey, then asked what the average score on the performance evaluation McIntyre had referred to was, and how he arrived at that score. McIntyre said he averaged all the scores, and it came out to 3.1 on a scale of 5. Mendoza, who wasn’t on the council at the time of that survey in September 2024, requested the evaluations through a public information request and said he wasn’t given all of them. However, he produced one signed by Marchant and McIntyre with an average score of 4.875.
“There was no consideration of any council member’s review in regards to this one,” Mendoza told McIntyre. “So, I’m calling you out with the disinformation that has been given to the public.”
Hanan said he was the only council member who provided constructive criticism in his evaluation of Marchant, with things that he wanted to see improved.
“One of the questions was, did he meet the goals and expectations that were set of him last year?” Hanan said. “And when I go back and I look at the previous year, there were no goals and expectations set. But then the second year, he didn’t meet his expectations. That is just not fair.”
Hanan said nobody had offered any constructive criticism as to how Marchant could better himself in his job.
“It’s just Ben did something bad, and so that’s done, we have to pull the plug, and there’s no saving Ben,” he said. “That’s horrible to do that to somebody. What I see is some very, very strong personalities that don’t like when people don’t do what they say.”
Marchant called the accusations against him “specious and baseless,” and said neither Zoberski nor Torres have ever come to him with specific complaints they have received from any employees.
“I’m not under any investigation, no allegations have been made, and I take great offense to the specious and baseless accusations that are being leveled against me,” he said. “All I hear are vague insinuations assassinating my character without any evidence, without any proof. And that is terribly unprofessional and unfair. And I find it cowardly when people are not able to raise their concerns directly with me.”
Marchant said he was raised to be a Christian, God-fearing man and tried to model his life after the life and teachings of Jesus Christ and grew up in the Boy Scouts of America. He then raised his hand in the Scout’s Honor symbol and recited the Boy Scout Oath.
“On my honor, if I can help the city of Fernley proceed, I will do whatever it takes,” he said. “In fact, I will tender my resignation on condition that the city council approves this budget, including the position of city manager, in order for it to proceed.”
McIntyre opened the floor for public comment, with some speakers defending Marchant, some listing grievances against him, and others urging the council to pass the proposed budget and deal with any personnel issues later.
McIntyre then announced that the council would recess to go into a legal brief for an hour. At 8 p.m., he announced that the recess would be extended another hour. At 9 p.m., the council reconvened, and McIntyre announced that they were negotiating a separation agreement with Marchant. The council voted unanimously to allow the meeting to continue past 9 p.m., and McIntyre said they would remain in recess until the separation agreement was completed.
Shortly after 10 p.m., the council reconvened again and voted unanimously to approve the 2025-26 fiscal year budget as presented, with no mention of Marchant’s resignation.
The council was scheduled to approve the separation agreement with Marchant at the June 4 meeting as part of the consent agenda, a list of matters that can be approved in one vote without discussion unless otherwise requested by a council member.
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