The Lyon County Commission on July 3 approved an agreement that had previously been
approved by the Fernley City Council to partially consolidate the Fernley Municipal Court and
the Fernley Justice Court.
Under the agreement, the two courts will both be housed in the Justice Court building when the
remodel is completed later this year. The city will continue to provide space for both courts until
the remodel is complete.
Comptroller Josh Foli said the Justice Court will save funding by replacing a vacant
administrator position with a court clerk position by utilizing the city's court administrator to
supervise the Court employees.
“We still keep the staff separate as far as payroll is concerned,” Foli said.
The city and the county will still have the same number of employees and those employees will
be paid by each entity, but all employees will work on both municipal and justice court cases.
The cases and revenues will be tracked and remitted to the city and the county, respectively. Foli
said there will be some additional costs for software licensing, but that is anticipated to be paid
out of the restricted court fees and not the county’s general fund.
The county will pay $834 per month to the city for these increased responsibilities. Foli said over
time, this should save costs as staffing will not need to be increased due to the economies of
combining the staff of the two courts.
The Commission also approved a one-year contract with Mansfield & Mayo Law Firm, PLLC
for public defender services in the Fernley Municipal Court for $120,000.
Foli told the Commission that state law requires the county to contract for public defender
services, but the county gets reimbursed by the city.
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