‘Positive’ meeting with Selby held

Sito Negron

Thursday, Dec. 18, 2003 | 9:32 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council had a "positive" meeting with City Manager Doug Selby behind closed doors Wednesday. Council members, citing the nature of the meeting as a personnel session, would not say much more about it.

"I'm taking the Fifth," Mayor Oscar Goodman said.

Ward 6 Councilman Michael Mack said the council and Selby "talked about opening up communications on major decisions."

"It was all positive," he added.

He declined to be specific about the conversation. So did Ward 4 Councilman Larry Brown.

Brown said "everybody shared as far as Doug's goals, and council's goals."

Selby declined to discuss the meeting, although he too characterized it as "positive."

He also said "it was a valuable opportunity to talk to council as far as their expectations." He only meets with the council once a year for an evaluation, he said, "so I appreciate the opportunity to talk to all the council."

Ward 3 Councilman Lawrence Weekly said "he needs to have those regularly so it doesn't get to the boiling point," referring to the events that led to the meeting.

The discussion was 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 retain her annual salary.

Weekly has 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. Also, a city audit concluded that the city had insufficient policies regarding lawmakers who are employees, and regarding "last chance" agreements, which Selby put to Williams several months ago.

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 the closed meeting to discuss his handling of the situation.

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