51°F
weather icon Cloudy

Attorney selection not surprising

Is history repeating itself? It certainly seems to be the case.

The decision Wednesday to hire Brittany Walker as city attorney came as no surprise.

After an extensive and expensive — $47,000 for the combined city attorney and city manager — search, City Council once again turned the temporary acting city attorney position into a permanent job.

In September 2017, now-fired attorney Steve Morris was hired after serving as acting city attorney for roughly three months. (He also was on staff in the city attorney’s office since 2012.)

Then, as now, the hiring of a new city attorney fits accusations of back-room deals that have plagued the city regardless of who is sitting at the council’s dais.

And once again, it appears that a decision about who to hire was made before interviews began.

Even applicants Christi Kindel and Stephen Smith questioned council’s sincerity about being open to candidates other than the acting city attorney during their interviews for the job.

Both had seen the March 23 council meeting to narrow down the number of applicants for the job when Walker received high praise from all the council members. Mayor Kiernan McManus said she “would be someone I would consider for the position,” Councilman James Howard Adams put her “at the top of my list,” and Councilwoman Claudia Bridges said that if she had to make a decision that day she would want Walker to continue in the job because she was impressed with the work she had done.

Claims of actions done in the “spirit of transparency” are nothing more than platitudes. Appearances matter. Just as they did before.

When Morris was hired, I wrote “City Council members had the opportunity to show those who have hurled accusations at them for having favorites … that things are not always what they appear to be. And yet … that’s what didn’t happen.” Again.

Walker has been in the position since October and appears to be doing an admirable job, despite her lack of experience. Experience that the other candidates had years of on their resumes.

To her credit, Walker’s interview with council members went well. She was poised and took time to compose her thoughts before carefully answering each of the council members’ questions. But so did Kindel, who interviewed for the position in 2017.

Walker’s score from the evaluation was the highest, 400 points higher than Kindel. Council members found her lacking in only three areas.

Smith, who seemed ill-prepared for his interview, was easily eliminated from consideration.

We admit there are some red flags in Kindel’s past, including communications with residents of Boulder City about municipal issues and some obvious issues in her relationships with co-workers that resulted in a temporary protection order and court interference.

It seems that in this case though, the choice was to go with someone who barely met the minimum requirements for the job, but was someone they knew and someone they had a relationship with.

When her final contract is presented — assuming she passes her background check — we hope that council members learned a thing or two from the last time a city attorney was hired. We encourage them to put the city first when coming to terms of employment.

While we have some issues about Walker’s previous attempts to restrict access to public documents and her inexperience, we were pleased to hear that she recognizes her shortcomings and would be willing to seek out advice and assistance from colleagues when necessary.

We hope our concerns are unjustified and wish Walker well in her new role.

Hali Bernstein Saylor is editor of the Boulder City Review. She can be reached at hsaylor@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9523. Follow @HalisComment on Twitter.

MOST READ
THE LATEST
My bighorn buddies

Having grown up in Boulder City, I was always aware of its unofficial mascots …the bighorn sheep.

Can’t we all just disagree?

Once you asked me, “What do you think?”

What if they gave a war and nobody was home?

The subjects in most of the articles and columns I write tend to include positive stories about American veterans and veterans’ organizations. And in fact the pieces are about veterans, not active-duty military.

Gratitude for government

I moved to Boulder City in 1981. Boulder City is blessed to have been a government town. Can we recall the blessings we have received from government?

Trash talk isn’t always a bad thing

Allow me to warn you that this month’s Home Matters is filled with all kinds of trash talk. In fact, I’ve been trash talking with the city and BC Wastefree for a few days now. Why all this garbage gab? It’s time to take out the trash, properly.

Legislative season almost here

Ahhh… it is a wonderful time of year. Spring is just around the corner. The sun shines longer, the birds are singing, and plants are blooming. It is a magical time of year!

MY D_Y WITH P_T _ND V_NN_

Last night I caught a few minutes of “Wheel of Fortune” and whenever I do, I can’t help but think back to my time in Hawaii when the show came over to film a few weeks’ worth of episodes at the Hilton Waikoloa Village about 15 years ago.

A little late and clueless but still…

I know, I know, I know. I’m a week late for Valentine’s Day content. But my timing has always sucked. Just ask my wife.

Veteran caregivers hope for financial boost

Much has been spoken and written about in recent months about military and veteran caregivers, and the responsibilities they are charged with.

A penny for your thoughts, compounded daily

When my oldest son, Joseph, turned 18 in 2011, a good family friend gifted him a self-help book by Darren Hardy called “The Compound Effect.” It’s all about achieving success one baby step at a time. My six other children loathed that gift, because my wife, Leslie, then proceeded to preach its principles seemingly ad nauseam over the next five years every opportunity she could find.