Schieve proposes misconduct hotline for city employees

Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve wants the city to invest in a misconduct hotline, where employees can report complaints on anything from sexual harassment to waste, fraud and abuse to a third party.

Schieve's proposal comes on the heels of two high profile misconduct complaints that have generated criticism over the way they were handled-- a complaint by a female employee that she was sexually assaulted by a coworker and a cluster of misconduct complaints that ultimately resulted in former City Manager Andrew Clinger's resignation.

"I don't think it should be in light of recent events, I think we should have something in place regardless of what's happened," Schieve said of why she is proposing the hotline.

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At Schieve's request, City Manager Sabra Newby acquired the number 866-RNO-TIPS, which will be available 24 hours a day to receive complaints from employees who want to remain anonymous as well as those who are comfortable leaving their contact information.

The hotline is on the agenda for consideration by the Reno City Council on Wednesday.

"I think it's a good tool to have so that people are comfortable speaking up about anything that makes them uncomfortable," Schieve said.

Schieve said other cities and private businesses have been implementing such hotlines in the wake of the Me Too movement in which women have been speaking up about their experiences with sexual harassment using the social media hashtag #MeToo.

Schieve said it is important to her that a third party not affiliated with the city take the calls. But Newby said the city's human resources department will receive and investigate the complaints. Non-personnel issues will be referred to the proper agency for investigation, Newby said.

In fact, when a reported called the number to see if it was operational, the human resources director answered it herself. She said they were testing the line and hadn't yet set the message that will typically be used to answer the hotline.

Also on Wednesday's agenda are proposed changes to the city's ordinance governing how complaints against council members and appointed officials are handled. The ordinance was created after the prolonged investigation of the complaints against Clinger opened the city up to criticism that it failed to protect the women who made the complaints against the city's highest official.

The city also has been criticized for how it handled the complaint of a former contract employee who said she was sexually assaulted by the former revitalization manager. Instead of informing law enforcement, Newby and City Attorney Karl Hall handled it as a personnel issue, hiring a lawyer to investigate the complaint and allowing Dunne to resign.

The woman did not file a report with police either.

Schieve said she didn't even know about the complaint until she read about it in the Reno Gazette Journal.

"What's our procedure with the city attorney's office? We have to be on the same page," Schieve said. "We were really left out of that process."

The proposed changes to the reporting process that council will consider had not been made public as of Monday afternoon.