(Tracy Strickland) – Boulder City Mayor Roger Tobler & Co. claim that my wife, Councilwoman Linda Strickland, has a conflict of interest. Really?
The Charter requires that elected officials represent all of the people of Boulder City because they are elected “at large” versus elected to represent district or wards. (Look at our Charter, Article II Section 4 “Number; Selection & Term; Recall”) This paragraph only reflects the “at large’ status of our elected officials, so no conflict here. And there is no conflict of interest in our defending the initiative sponsors in the wrongful lawsuits filed against them by the City.
An attorney cannot act as legal counsel for multiple clients who have adverse interests and cannot use confidential information from one client in a lawsuit against another client. Neither my wife nor I have ever been retained by or entered into an attorney client relationship with the City. We have never used any confidential information in defending the initiative sponsors – the only information that we have is public record.
As a councilwoman, she politically represents the people of Boulder City, and in accordance with her oath of political office, she swore to defend the US constitution and the Nevada Constitution against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign. However, political representation and legal representation are not the same. If every time a lawyer is elected to council he/she also becomes an attorney for the City, some of our previous councilpersons-attorneys would surely have committed malpractice with some of their votes.
Further, if there is a conflict of interest, she must disclose and abstain which is something that she has always done. But above all, the initiative sponsors are not suing anyone – they are being sued.
Tobler also swore to defend the US and Nevada Constitutions, and yet he has voted to sue initiative sponsors on 7 of the last 8 initiatives circulated in BC, and has approved lawsuits suing BC residents for engaging in their First Amendment constitutional right to petition. And he has approved of using taxpayer dollars to violate their rights, and invalidate your vote.
Conflict – you bet. But it is not my wife that has it.
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