Former Douglas County School Board President Susan Jansen
The Douglas County School Board acknowledged the findings of an open meeting law violation naming former School Board President Susan Jansen.
Jansen was named in a complaint brought forth by Minden resident Leslie Hokenson regarding an incident which occurred during the Dec. 12, 2023, board meeting where she felt her First Amendment right was taken from her and she felt threatened.
The complaint went before the Office of Attorney General, which found Jansen in violation of both an Open Meeting Law violation and a constitutional violation. The board approved the findings unanimously, but did not hold further discussion.
“It makes me so angry at the rest of them that this whole thing was just swept under the table,” said Hokenson. “If they won’t call members of the board out when the Attorney General (office) did say that my First Amendment rights were violated, what does that say about any of their ethics? I guess I expect too much of them.”
During the Dec. 12, 2023, board meeting, Hokenson began speaking during the first general public comment period.
She began by stating she was sad about the resignation of former board member Tony Magnotta for the reasons stated in his letter to the board. She expressed concern that many of the board members have political agendas and want to eliminate anyone who does not agree with their agenda. Hokenson agreed with Magnotta’s statements in his letter about time being wasted and referenced a name calling incident involving Jansen during another board meeting.
At approximately 30 seconds into Hokenson’s comment, Jansen tapped her meeting gavel and asserted, “You’re done. That’s a closed item. Officers, if she continues, take her out.”
Hokenson questioned whether anyone was allowed to quote statements made in the past.
“So, we can’t quote anything that any of you on the board, or not on the board, have said, is that correct,” said Hokenson.
Jansen responded by restating part of the statement she read before public comment began, “Disruptive, repetitious, inciting others, an example of speech that may be reasonably limited.”
The Office of the Attorney General found that no disruption of the meeting had occurred other than Jansen’s interruption of Hokenson’s public testimony.
“The chairperson’s interruption appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to what she perceives as personal criticism,” stated the Attorney General Office’s letter of findings. “There is no evidence to support that Ms. Hokenson was repetitious in her statements and there was not notice of this restriction in the public instructions of the agenda.”
The Attorney General office also found that Hokenson had no improper motive, but was directly criticizing the board’s actions related to an agenda item the board was to take action on, which was a resigning board member.
“Ms. Hokenson was not hostile toward Chairperson Jansen during her public comment,” stated the Attorney General Office’s letter of findings. “Where a public commenter is stopped solely from criticizing the performance of a member of the board, a violation of that person’s First Amendment rights occurs.”
Hokenson encouraged the public to view the findings of The Office of the Attorney General under the May 20, 2025, school board meeting agenda.
“I believe the public has a right to be informed about how complaints that come forward with legitimate concerns are treated, especially when the complaint has been validated by the Attorney General’s Office,” said Hokenson.
Hokenson expressed concern for her safety and well-being as a result of this incident.
“I was terrified and thought, what did I do?” she said. “It has opened up lies from the other board members about me. I just want to be heard.”
Jansen declined comment to The Record-Courier on Tuesday.