The We Deserve a Better Board entry at the Carson Valley Days Parade.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, having a discussion with your attorney is not an Open Meeting Law violation, or technically even a meeting. That’s what school board trustee Yvonne Wagstaff, and former trustees Carey Kangas and Linda Gilkerson did on April 9, 2024.
Residents Virginia Starrett and David Seat filed an Open Meeting Law Complaint alleging that Wagstaff, Gilkerson and Kangas violated the Open Meeting Law when they recessed in order to consult with their legal counsel privately during consideration of an agreement that would settle a lawsuit accusing the four other trustees of a records violation.
More than a year later, the Nevada Attorney General’s Office filed a decision on May 23, concluding that the trio were not in violation of open meeting laws.
During the 2024 meeting, Wagstaff sought to reject the settlement and to have the attorneys go back and negotiate more favorable terms for the district, which passed 3- 0 with Gilkerson and Kangas in favor. Trustees Susan Jansen, Doug Englekirk, Katherine Dickerson, and David Burns abstained due conflict of interest.
At the following month’s meeting, former school board legal counsel, Joey Gilbert Law’s attorney Kendra Jepsen acknowledged there were allegations of an Open Meeting Law violation after Wagstaff, Kangas and Gilkerson consulted with their attorney during the April 9 meeting.
“We didn’t make a decision during that discussion,” said Wagstaff at the May 21, 2024, meeting. “Our attorney presented us with some options, we came back, sat down, and I knew what I wanted to do, so I made a motion.”
The four school board members named in the records lawsuit were ruled indemnified in a May 29 ruling by District Judge Thomas Gregory, meaning they are not personally responsible for the fees.
“The four have been indemnified, not exonerated, not found guilty, merely indemnified,” said resident Cheryl Blomstrom during the June 26 meeting. “Why? Because there wasn’t an answer to their attorney’s position that they be indemnified.”
Gregory reversed his preliminary order that trustees were liable for $70,000 of the $166,081.16 jointly and severally with the school district.
“As a board it is your fiduciary duty to protect the taxpayers from this kind of bad behavior,” said Blomstrom. “You owe it, we owe it to the taxpayers, the community, parents, and mostly the students. We’ve suffered this year with personnel and program cuts based on a declining budget.”
The order was Gregory’s final ruling on the records lawsuit filed in August 2023 by former School Board Trustee Robbe Lehmann, former Douglas High School principal Marty Swisher, former HR Director Joe Girdner, and parent Dean Miller after it was suspected the four trustees were deliberating on board matters through private communications during and outside of board meetings.
The lawsuit dragged on for over a year until Sept. 18, 2024. After two days of testimony during an evidentiary hearing, Gregory issued a written ruling on Oct. 10 finding that the four trustees withheld 6,136 pages of documents and the school district withheld 500 pages records for a year before turning them over.
The four trustees claimed that it would be unreasonable for them to be liable for any attorney fees and costs.
On Feb. 21, Gregory awarded the petitioners $166,081.16 in attorney’s fees and costs.