Why is Chairman Vaughn Hartung allowing tradition to be fiddled with?
Mike Clark is the current Washoe County Assessor and Commissioner-Elect for District 2, which is primarily south Reno and Washoe Valley. Clark is having a heck of a time finding out when he is being sworn in as a commissioner. For as long as anyone can remember, the swearing-in is done on the first Tuesday of the new year. Picon has gone back on the county’s website looking at videos dating back to 2012, showing the swearing occurring in January. This is not a moving target, it is traditional, symbolic, and predictable.
This year, for unknown reasons, the county contacted newly elected and re-elected officials, advising them they would be sworn in on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. Mr. Clark objected, seeing this as a problem. First, he is the Washoe County Assessor until the end of the year, and if Assessor-Elect Chris Sarman is sworn in on December 20, 2022, that means Washoe County has two Assessors. Do the citizens of Washoe County have to pay for two assessors? What position would Mike Clark be sworn into, unless Mr. Lucey plans to resign on December 20th, which seems silly since he is paid to be the commissioner until January 3rd. It would seem the County Manager’s office really didn’t care or had not thought the entire event out.
Maybe it can be chalked up to the bed-bug hunting chairman, Commissioner Vaughn Hartung, who seems to not be thrilled with Mike Clark’s big win, and is apparently leading the charge to make Mr. Clark feel unwelcome.
Additionally, Washoe County handed an “employee packet” to Mr. Clark that is dated August 29, 2022, to sign. We would like to remind the county the general election was on November 8, 2022, so it would seem someone has made an error. The county is all but asking Clark for his first-born child, and that would be Reno City Councilwoman Meghan Ebert, who was sworn-in as the City of Reno councilmember on December 2, 2022, representing Ward 4.
When Mr. Clark contacted us and provided a copy of the “employee packet” we thumbed through it and wondered why the county would need a copy of his passport among other items, are they afraid he is going to flee the country? Most of all we wondered about the special attention being paid to the county manager’s office and how Clark could not discuss anything he would learn in the manager’s office – our question, what could he learn?
We’ve attached one page of the document outlining the ‘Non-Disclosure Agreement’ where Washoe County has forbidden Mr. Clark from:
1. Seek to read or copy any confidential information I may encounter while at the Washoe County Office of the County Manager;
2. Remove any confidential information from the premises;
3. Seek to benefit or permit others to benefit personally from using any confidential information obtained by the Washoe County Office of the County Manager;
4. Search out and read any case in the case file system (including UNITY, electronic files, or other applications) that Washoe County Office of the County Manger has not approved as part of my specific assigned duties or tasks; or without a specific agency business need.
20221208_164531 by Picon Press Media LLC on Scribd
No wonder getting public records from the county is so difficult, while the law presumes all records created by our government are subject to public inspection, the county manager appears to believe all records created by his office are special and therefore confidential. We will be probing this malformed thought process with records requests, and should they manifest this illegal thought process, we will seek a writ from a competent court and compel the county to follow the law.
When the county handed him an ‘employee package’ were they confused? Mr. Clark is not an employee; he has been the assessor for eight years. We think they have his address on file, probably his W4 as well. We also did not realize County Manager Eric Brown would be assigning an elected commissioner ‘duties’ and ‘tasks’, last we heard the manager works at the pleasure of the commission. The packet also demanded Clark to submit to a background check, which is not required by law and surely should not apply to an 8 year county official with no break in service.
When we asked Mr. Clark for comment, he said, “I don’t know what UNITY is but I’m sure going to find out.” Picon reached out to Commissioner Jeanne Herman and asked if she was given this same ‘employee’ packet. She was not. We didn’t bother to reach out to Dr. Mariluz Garcia because she has yet to ever call us back to our earlier story inquiries. Mr. Clark has since advised the county he will not be signing any non-disclosure agreements and that he works for the citizens.
We then dug through the Washoe County website and found this verbiage related to county commissioners: takes office on the first Monday in January following the election (NRS 244.030). It would seem Washoe County needs to read their own website to follow their own rules regarding being sworn in and taking office. Additionally, there is that pesky thing called Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) and they need to follow NRS 244.030. Commissioner Hartung must remember his first swearing in on January 7, 2013, you know the first Monday of the new year?
Simply put, there is no law or regulation that would require Mike Clark to submit to a background check or some county dreamt up December swearing in. He does not and will not drive county cars. He has been the assessor for eight years with access to county systems already. This literally baffles Picon, why the disparate treatment and why the push to swear folks into a position they won’t hold for another two weeks? Is Chair Vaughn Hartung wanting to inflict a last flogging of Mr. Clark prior to his becoming a commissioner as retaliation for Commissioner Bob Lucey’s big loss?
There are interesting comments being made throughout the political arena claiming Commissioner Hartung is planning on stepping down in about twelve months. We hear he hopes to support Sparks Councilman Kristopher Dahir’s appointment to his seat, so Dahir could have the gift of incumbency. Our question, Governor-Elect Lombardo seems to be somewhat savvy to the political climate, given his Chief of Staff hire, and why would he appoint Sparks Councilman Dahir? When Mr. Dahir just ran for Nevada Secretary of State, and he received less votes than ‘none-of-the-above’. That is hardly an endorsement.
The rumor mill is in full swing – but that might be because no one, and we mean no one thought Mike Clark would be elected.