Attorneys for fired Ely City Manager Jim Alworth refused comment on their client filing a wrongful termination suit against the Ely City Council but also did not dismiss the possibility out of hand.
In a telephone interview with Alworth’s attorney Scott Husbands said he had no comment on whether his client would file a suit against the Ely City Council to either get his job back or for monetary damages.
However Husbands did admit that his firm, Gianoli Husbands, had only recently been hired by Alworth, less than a week after the agenda for last Thursday’s meeting was published.
During that meeting the city council unanimously voted to fire the controversial City Manager to the cheers of a packed audience.
The embattled City Clerk was not there to defend himself. Instead Alworth was on his way for a cruise according to sources.
Alworth and his conduct became a major campaign issue in the recent city election and unfortunately for the City Clerk all of the candidates he was backing lost.
According to Ely city code only a unanimous vote by the council could result in the City Clerk’s termination.
Alworth Ely City Clerk for the last 13 years has had a long and sometimes tumultuous relationship with Ely Elected officials.
But while Alworth had run ins with some city councilmen and even some mayors he was able to maintain political support, albeit sometimes at a bare minimum, of the council.
Despite inserting himself directly into the most recent election with public letters attacking the eventual victors if Alworth may have been fired because of his reaction to the election rather than its results.
According to sources at one and perhaps more of the victorious councilmen tried to extend an olive branch to the City Clerk all of which Alworth rejected out of hand.
With Alworth’s termination the question is now whether he will sue the City of Ely.
According to several sources the council consulted with an attorney prior to the vote and based on that attorney’s advice made minimal if any comment on the agenda item.
According to Nevada law and Ely City code a city clerk is an appointed position who serves at the pleasure of the board or the mayor. As such a city clerk may be fired without cause.
While that would appear to leave the council in the clear, nothing prevents Alworth from filing a suit.
And for the now ousted City Clerk the most obvious challenge he has to his termination is not the vote itself but on the actions of the councilmen leading up to it.
If Alworth can prove that three or more of Ely City Council met privately sometime before the meeting to discuss his termination, he could make a case that they were in violation of Nevada’s Open Meeting Law and thus any action taken from that illegal meeting would have to be null and void.
Burden of proof however would be on Alworth.
There may be other avenues open to Alworth and if the past is any guide he may be one of most qualified persons to find them.
Over the past 13 years the former city clerk proved himself formidable in using Nevada’s ethics laws to hamstring and to even oust political rivals.
