Testimony offered by four school board trustees last week pretty much threw Joey Gilbert Law under the bus.
Claiming that they didn’t realize they were being sued, trustees Doug Englekirk, David Burns, Susan Jansen and Katherine Dickerson expressed surprise.
One development that might have contributed to their consternation was a ruling issued the day before the hearing by District Judge Tom Gregory that not only the individual trustees could be held liable for the legal costs, but they might also face civil penalties.
The school board majority taking office on Jan. 1, 2023, after winning three seats was adamant about hiring the law firm, despite Joey Gilbert telling them he would have to seek outside help to properly represent them.
There’s a reason elected boards hire professionals, like attorneys and engineers. One hint: It’s not to tell them what they want to hear.
It’s to steer them clear of rocks like the ones the school board majority has found itself hitting over the last year.
Maybe if they’d worked with the previous law firm for more than six months, they might have realized that.
However, emails obtained from the first month of their tenure on the board revealed that the plan all along was to hire Gilbert, whose failed bid for governor the prior year made him a celebrity in certain circles.
We don’t know how Judge Gregory will rule in the case, or when that ruling will arrive.
We suppose it’s entirely possible that he’ll find the trustees did all they could to comply with Nevada’s open records law. They certainly signed an affidavit to that effect, which the four trustees claimed last week that they didn’t understand.
That begs the question of whether they were being willfully obtuse under oath on the witness stand in an effort to avoid the liability they now face.
There’s a lesson here for the more than 100 elected officials serving in Douglas County. When taking an oath of office, officials take on responsibility for their actions. According to the judge, that includes personal liability.
