Ethics complaint filed against former Vegas city manager
Dana Gentry
(Nevada Current) Ryann Juden, a fixture at North Las Vegas City Hall for the last decade, dictated the terms of a post-employment consulting contract with the municipality more than a month before leaving his job, according to emails and an ethics complaint obtained by the Current.
“Attached is the professional services contract. Many thanks,” Juden wrote on April 1 from his city email to then-city attorney Micaela Moore, who later replaced Juden as city manager.
The three-year contract calls for the city to pay Juden’s EDGE Strategies $15,000 a month, plus expenses not to exceed $30,000 a year, to provide “Management, Public Affairs, Policy Analysis, and Advisory Services,” according to the contract, which became effective May 1, two weeks before Juden’s final day of employment as city manager.
Juden serves as president of EDGE Strategies, according to Secretary of State records. It was incorporated on January 5 by Juden’s wife, Debra. The two did not respond to requests for comment.
The complaint filed with the Nevada Ethics Commission by former city employee Pamela Dittmar alleges Juden violated state law, which prohibits public officials, while employed, from using their positions to “secure or grant unwarranted privileges, preferences, exemptions or advantages for the public officer or employee, any business entity in which the public officer or employee has a significant pecuniary interest or any person to whom the public officer or employee has a commitment in a private capacity.”
The law also prohibits a public officer from participating “as an agent of government in the negotiation or execution of a contract between the government and the public officer or employee, any business entity in which the public officer or employee has a significant pecuniary interest or any person to whom the public officer or employee has a commitment in a private capacity.”
Emails obtained by the Current indicate Juden submitted and approved his contract to appear on the agenda for the May 1 city council meeting, as alleged in the ethics complaint.
“Attached is the agenda for May 1st,” North Las Vegas city clerk Jackie Rodgers wrote to Juden on April 25. “Specifically, I want to call your attention to item numbers 12 and 17. With your approval, we will post the agenda.”
Item 12 on the consent agenda, in which a number of items are approved with one vote and without discussion, was a four-year employment agreement for Moore, the city attorney, to serve as city manager with an annual salary of $322,000 plus benefits. Item 17 was the city’s contract with EDGE Strategies, the company formed in January by Juden and his wife.
The council approved the items unanimously on May 1, two weeks before Juden’s employment with the city ended.
“This act undermines public trust and aligns with the misuse of one’s official position for personal gain, in direct conflict” with the law, Dittmar wrote in the complaint. “Moreover, Juden’s involvement in the process appears clear.”
North Las Vegas Mayor Pamela Goynes Brown says she had no qualms about Juden using his position as city manager to execute a consulting contract.
“I did not,” the mayor told the Current, noting under Juden’s leadership, the city, which was once $150 million in the red, turned around its finances. “It’s about keeping his momentum going, and it’s about having the vision and the goal in the city of North Las Vegas to put our city in the positive light that we have it in today. I don’t agree that we did anything that is not within the law.”
The mayor declined to say if it was appropriate for Juden, as city manager, to submit the terms of his contract to the city attorney. “I’m not going to comment on that.”
“I could only tell you that I didn’t get briefed that it was to be on the consent agenda,” Councilman Richard Cherchio said via text.
Moore, who also benefited from Juden’s departure via her ascension to city manager, declined to respond to questions submitted by the Current. “We have no comment,” NLV spokesman Greg Bortolin said via email.
“The business will provide certain management, public affairs, leadership development, labor relations, strategic communications, policy analysis, and advisory services. Meet with individual elected officials of all levels of government and provide information relevant to individual clients (sic) priorities,” Juden wrote via email when asked by the city’s business licensing department following his departure what services his company would perform.
Juden, who initially served as chief of staff, a position created for him, became assistant city manager in August 2015. The city council appointed him in 2018 to become city manager, shortly after then-city manager Qiong Liu terminated Juden after he reportedly told her to “either resign or be fired,” the Las Vegas Sun reported at the time. Liu rescinded Juden’s termination and retired. The city council, led at the time by Juden’s longtime friend and church colleague, Mayor John Lee, subsequently appointed Juden to the position.
Juden earned close to $600,000 from the city in 2022, according to Transparent Nevada, a website that tracks government salaries.