Council to meet privately with LV city manager

Sito Negron

Monday, Dec. 15, 2003 | 10:42 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council will speak with City Manager Doug Selby behind closed doors Wednesday as part of the ongoing handling of a situation that began with the disciplining of a former employee who is a lawmaker and thus far has embroiled the top levels of municipal management.

So far, Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, has been fired from his job in the Neighborhood Services Department, and his former boss, Sharon Segerblom, has been demoted from her department-director position and sent to the Detention and Enforcement Department, although she will maintain her annual salary.

Some City Council members have said that the buck should not stop with Segerblom and Williams, both of whom have claimed that the city manager's office should have been aware of the events leading up to the scandal.

Williams was accused of taking city pay he did not earn while he was serving in the 2001 and 2003 Legislatures, and Segerblom showed favoritism and failed to properly supervise him, two city investigations determined. The Las Vegas City Council on Nov. 25 took several actions, including ordering Selby to appear at a closed meeting to discuss his handling of the situation.

"The city of Las Vegas had no policies, just practices," Councilman Lawrence Weekly said Nov. 25. Weekly said today he planned to "listen and share my thoughts and concerns and hopefully we'll come up with a solution to this problem and move forward."

He has said that more people than Williams and Segerblom were involved, pointing to the fact that the city did not have specific policies, but rather, as he said, "practices."

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said the session will be "a great opportunity for everyone to regroup. The city manager reports directly to Las Vegas City Council and I think it will provide an excellent opportunity for each of us to give some input to the city manager and give him a forum to share some of his thoughts with us."

She said the key will be implementing "strong and consistent policies across the board."

"It's good, especially coming off all the controversy of the past couple of months, for everyone to have an opportunity to regroup and reiterate to our city manager what our goals and objectives are for him," Boggs McDonald said.

When asked whether she anticipated discipline, she said, "I don't anticipate anything negative at all to come out of it. It will provide a good forum for some constructive criticism and to reiterate the goals of the council."

Selby said he wasn't sure exactly what to expect. "I am not anticipating a disciplinary session," he said.

"I don't think I'm going to be reviewed and come out for a recommendation for a bonus," Selby said, tongue in cheek. "But it's an opportunity to have dialogue with the council about my performance, and it's certainly their privilege and right to call for a closed-door session. I respect that."

Selby has been manager since August 2002. He makes $157,000 a year. He joined the city in 1999, after previously working with the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the Southern Nevada Water Authority.