City attorney recants claim councilwoman worked to oust Clinger

The Reno City Attorney's Office is recanting its claim that Councilwoman Naomi Duerr conspired with three women to oust former City Manager Andrew Clinger, saying Duerr "did the right thing" in helping a troubled employee report her grievances to human resources.

In a statement to the Reno Gazette Journal, Assistant City Attorney Jonathan Shipman apologized to Duerr for a court filing that cast her actions to help an employee in "a negative light."

"The City Attorney’s Office...applauds Councilmember Duerr for doing the right thing at the right time," Shipman said in a written statement. "To be clear, there was no conspiracy involving Councilmember Duerr."

Last month, City Attorney Karl Hall's office filed a motion in a lawsuit by two former city employees, Deanna Gescheider and Maureen McKissick, that accused Duerr of conspiring with the women to concoct sexual harassment complaints to oust Clinger.

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But the city's own investigation into the complaints, conducted by former Clark County Judge David Wall, found no evidence of a conspiracy.

Rather, Wall found Gescheider and McKissick made valid initial claims but then worked together to muddy the process with secondary complaints that couldn't be proven.

Hall's office filed court new documents on Feb. 2 acknowledging that no conspiracy actually existed, but that the women who ultimately filed the lawsuit "acted in concert" to fabricate gratuitous secondary claims.

"The city concedes that evidence of a conspiracy to file entirely false claims is not consistent with the totality of the evidence," the new document says.

Unlike the city attorney's original filing, the new filing doesn't mention Duerr by name at all.

Duerr said she's pleased the city attorney has reversed his view on her actions during the Clinger investigation.

"My only involvement was to encourage a troubled employee to report her concerns to the HR department," Duerr said in an email Wednesday. "That is the heart of (the city's sexual harassment policy): See something, say something. I am proud of my actions and would do the same again in a heartbeat."

Mark Mausert, the lawyer representing McKissick and Gescheider, said the city attorney's office continues to overreach in this case.

"That allegation of a conspiracy against Councilwoman Duerr is part and parcel of a course of conduct of attacking the plaintiffs," Mausert said. "They overreached on that one and they got caught and they upset a councilwoman."

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In September 2016, the council voted to terminate Clinger, paying him a $226,000 severance package, after Gescheider, McKissick and Wolf filed misconduct complaints against him.

Gescheider originally complained she feared Clinger would retaliate against her for bringing to light unethical conduct at the Reno Police Department. As the investigation progressed, she said he also subjected her to sexual harassment.

McKissick said she was tormented by a fellow female manager who she believed Clinger was having an affair with.

The Wall investigation found no evidence of the affair and did not conclude Gescheider was sexually harassed. At the advice of her lawyer, Gescheider refused to be interviewed by Wall, which he said hampered his investigation.

During the investigation, Clinger claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy to oust him. The Wall report found three council members were deeply dissatisfied with Clinger's performance but could not persuade a fourth council member to vote against renewing his contract.

At that point, Wall's investigation found, a group of disgruntled employees decided to "take matters into their own hands" and make their grievances known.

In her first public remarks on the episode Wednesday, Duerr lamented that the city's handling of the women's original concerns snowballed into a tumultuous investigation and lawsuit. She said if the city had a stronger policy for handling complaints against top elected and appointed officials the process may have gone more smoothly.

"So many have gotten swept up in this process and very hurt, wrongly in some cases, even my own self," she said. "Those across the board (have experienced) loss of jobs, loss of self esteem, loss of faith in our institution.

"They've been embarrassed, victimized, silenced. This is across the board."