Douglas school district on track with hefty legal bill

In the first five months Joey Gilbert has represented the Douglas County School District he has already charged the district $170,023, exceeding the legal budget of $160,000.

That includes reducing charges for certain services and hourly rates and providing the district with a $32,000 credit in October.

But November’s bill came in at more than $40,000, which included Gilbert’s $7,500 monthly retainer.

At the current rate, Gilbert’s bill could approach nearly $500,000 for the year.

Pleas during Tuesday’s meeting urged counsel to address what the charges were for the sake of transparency and understanding.

“I do understand the obligations, but it’s about public transparency and it’s the public’s money that is being spent,” said Trustee Carey Kangas.

Gilbert said many of the charges have included thousands of dollars for responding to open meeting law complaints and public records requests which exceeds at least 6,000 pages filed.

A public records lawsuit is continuing to wind its way in district court seeking texts and emails between trustees. No court date has been set as of Wednesday. It’s possible that District Judge Tom Gregory will rule without conducting a hearing. The Nevada Attorney General’s Office has reported receiving 46 open meeting law complaints over two months ending in October.

“We know this is a concern,” said Trustee Linda Gilkerson on Tuesday. “What we would like to do is provide the public with details for educational purposes.”

Gilkerson broke down the charges while being cautious of attorney-client confidentiality.

“I know I have been criticized about wanting to talk about the finances, especially when it’s Mr. Gilbert’s invoices, but the majority of the emails, texts and in person meetings with our constituents are currently concerning this manner,” said Gilkerson. “We all know that the public is concerned. I truly mean no disrespect and animosity or want to disparage anyone but instead what I would like to do is educate our community a little bit on these costs in hopes we can have, as a board, more dialogue and therefore rein in the anxiety level and bring the anger down.”

Gilkerson went on to explain some details on the combined detail listing from Tuesday’s agenda, which is posted on the Douglas County School Board website.

She pointed out the charges for board meetings, employee-employer negotiations, general board administration, and the public record requests and open meeting law violations.

According to the voucher listing the way Gilkerson described, Board meetings cost $6,067.11, general board administration is $11,467.50, and the open meeting law complaints and public records requests are costing the district $14,577.

“We are spending a fourth of our money this month on public records, I think people should know that when they file a public record request, it costs the district money,” said Gilkerson. “I know people don’t want to be frivolous and people don’t want to think that they are wasting District money or being frivolous.”

Gilbert said he did not have an issue in having some detail on the bills to provide a general idea of what the charges mean on his bills in the future.

“I want to have that open door policy,” said Gilbert, “but I also don’t want to invite people to do anything or not do anything that could cost the district money or problems later. But I don’t have a problem with an additional description being added, it’s something we can discuss.”