An ethics complaint has been filed against a former Las Vegas city manager

Dana Gentry

(Nevada Current) Ryan Juden, who has worked at North Las Vegas City Hall for the past decade, dictated the terms of a consulting contract with the municipality more than a month before he left the job, according to emails and an ethics complaint filed. adrift.

“A contract on the provision of professional services is attached. Thank you very much,” Juden wrote on April 1 from his city email to then-City Attorney Michaela Moore, who later succeeded Juden as city manager.

The three-year contract calls for the city to pay Juden’s EDGE Strategies $15,000 per month and expenses not to exceed $30,000 per year to provide “management, public relations, policy analysis and consulting services,” according to contract, which began May 1, two weeks before Juden’s last day as city manager.

Juden is the president of EDGE Strategies, according to the Secretary of State. It was founded on January 5 by Juden’s wife, Debra. They did not respond to requests for comment.

A complaint filed with the Nevada Ethics Commission by former city employee Pamela Dittmar alleges Youden violated state law, which prohibits public officials from using their position in the course of their employment to “secure or grant unreasonable privileges, preferences, exceptions, or advantages to a public official or employee, any business entity in which the public official or employee has a significant pecuniary interest, or any a person to whom a civil servant or employee has obligations in a private capacity”.

The law also prohibits public officials from participating “as a government representative in the negotiation or performance of a contract between the government and a public official or employee, any business entity in which the public official or employee has a significant pecuniary interest, or any other person, before by which a civil servant or employee has obligations in a private capacity”.

Emails obtained by the Current show Juden submitted and approved his contract to be on the agenda for the May 1 City Council meeting, according to ethical complaint.

“The May 1 agenda is attached,” North Las Vegas Clerk Jackie Rogers wrote Juden on April 25. “In particular, I want to draw your attention to items 12 and 17. With your permission, we will publish the agenda. »

Agenda Item 12, in which a number of items are approved by a single vote and without discussion, was for a four-year employment agreement for Moore, the city attorney, to serve as city manager at an annual salary of $322,000 plus benefits. Item 17 was the city’s contract with EDGE Strategies, a company founded in January by Juden and his wife.

The council unanimously approved the items on May 1, two weeks before Juden’s tenure with city government ended.

“This act undermines public trust and involves abuse of office for personal gain, which is in direct violation of the law,” Dittmar wrote in the complaint. “Furthermore, Juden’s involvement in the process is obvious.”

North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goins Brown says she had no doubt that Juden used his position as city manager to fulfill the consulting contract.

“I didn’t do that,” Mayor Current said, noting that under Juden’s leadership the city, once $150 million in the red, has turned its finances around. “It’s about maintaining its momentum and the vision and purpose in the city of North Las Vegas to show our city in the positive light that we have today. I do not agree with the fact that we did something outside the framework of the law.”

The mayor declined to say whether it was appropriate for Youden, as city manager, to provide the terms of his contract to the city attorney. “I’m not going to comment on that.”

“All I could tell you was that I was not notified that this would be on the agenda,” Councilman Richard Cerchio said in a text message.

Moore, who also benefited from Juden’s departure because of her ascension to mayor, declined to answer questions sent by the Current. “We have no comment,” NLV spokesman Greg Bortolin said via email.

“The business will provide certain management, public relations, leadership development, labor relations, strategic communications, policy analysis and consulting services. Meet with individual elected officials at all levels of government and provide information relevant to individual client priorities (sic),” Juden wrote in an email when asked by the city’s business licensing department after his departure what services his company would provide.

Juden, who originally served as chief of staff, a position created for him, became assistant city manager in August 2015. The City Council appointed him as city manager in 2018, shortly after then-City Manager Qiong Liu fired Juden after he reportedly told her to “either resign or be fired,” Las Vegas Sun reported at that time Liu revoked Yuden’s dismissal and resigned. The City Council, then chaired by Juden’s longtime friend and church colleague, Mayor John Lee, later appointed Juden to the position.

Juden earned about $600,000 with the city in 2022, according to Transparent Nevada, a website that tracks state salaries.