Former Fernley City Manager Ben Marchant will receive one year’s pay, COBRA health coverage for himself and his dependents for a year and the city will buy his remaining time to become fully vested in the Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada under the terms of a severance agreement approved by the City Council at its June 4 meeting.
Marchant offered to resign during a budget hearing on May 28, after Mayor Neal McIntyre vetoed a 3-2 council vote during a May 21 budget meeting to approve the city’s 2025-26 fiscal year budget with the city manager’s position being defunded. At that meeting, the council members who voted to defund the city manager’s position, Albert Torres, Felicity Zoberski and Joe Mendoza, declined to say why they wanted to defund the position, saying only that they had been advised not to discuss the city manager’s character, conduct or competency.
But at the May 28 meeting, Torres and Zoberski outlined a litany of complaints about Marchant, accusing him of dishonesty, insubordination and lack of communication. Marchant denied those accusations against him, and while defending his character, offered to resign if that was in the city’s best interest and was the only thing preventing the council from approving its budget. The council then went into recess for a legal brief, then after three hours of negotiations, returned to approve the budget with no further discussion.
Under the terms of the severance agreement, Marchant was placed on paid administrative leave from May 29 through June 5 and his last day of employment was June 5,.
In the agreement, Marchant affirmed that he has not filed any claims, complaints or actions of any kind against the city in any court of law or with any government agency and he, his heirs and any other representatives release the city from all claims that he may have or has ever had. The city agreed to direct all requests for references to the mayor or the current human resources director and the city shall provide only the dates of employment and job title.
If the city is prohibited from buying the PERS benefits that would make Marchant fully vested, the city would make a lump sum payment in that amount, subject to standard withholdings.
Comment
Comments