Corrupt Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones (D) faced calls for his resignation during a public meeting on Tuesday. Demands for Jones’ resignation followed a judge’s ruling against him last month for deleting text messages from his phone and lying to the court about it, concerning a quid pro quo scandal with former Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Elayna Youchah awarded developer James Rhodes’ Gypsum Resources LLC attorney fees for the time it took to bring the motion for sanctions against Jones, but did not sanction Clark County or report Jones to the Nevada State Bar for misconduct. She recommended Rhodes’ attorneys file the complaint, though it was unclear if they had done so as of Tuesday. Gypsum filed a motion last week in an attempt to have Youchah reconsider sanctions against the county, alleging that other county staff also destroyed evidence in the ongoing litigation.
Dozens showed up at the Commissioner’s meeting to speak against Jones. During the meeting, Commissioner Jim Gibson (D) reminded the public that Jones was not on the agenda and that open public comment would be heard at the end of the meeting. Gibson also noted that the commission is not legally allowed to remove an elected official… but failed to note that the county did have to exercise options to remove an elected official when then-Public Administrator Robert Telles (D) was arrested for murdering a local journalist last year… and wouldn’t resign, either.
A regular at local government meetings, Ed Uehling, waited his turn to speak and argued that:
Every single item on this agenda is affected by the corruption of this person.
Uehling concluded that the entirety of the board is corrupt, saying:
You’re the corrupt ones, Commissioner Jones is just a manifestation of that.
The Clark County GOP chairman, Jesse Law, called on Jones to resign, saying that “the responsibility rests with him”.
Law continued:
I am calling on you to resign. The discomfort that we all feel is going to be a microcosm compared to the bankruptcy that we’re about to face if a 2.2 billion dollar judgment is realized. The budget shortfall… I’ve listened to suffering here today from some different individuals who need different kinds of care or education, and that budget shortfall alone is going to make your job much harder.
And, think about the legacies of each of your families and your own careers being marred from having to go bankrupt because every day that is passing and you are allowing one of your own to have lied to a court, to have deleted evidence, and to have that ruling found by a judge. Let’s punctuate on that. Knowingly, over what is a quid pro quo with a former commissioner, former governor. And there are consequences for that, none of us want that to be the thing, but that was the actions of Justin Jones.
Chairman Jesse Law calls on @JustinJonesNV to resign after the judge finds he deleted evidence of quid pro quo. @ClarkCountyNV pic.twitter.com/XX5sg3OPDf
— Clark County Republican Party NEVADA (@CCRPNV) May 2, 2023
Law said he understood that the commission may have its hands bound, but only to a degree, calling on the commission to look at the Nevada Revised Statutes and the obligations of the County Manager in the case that they need to act to remove Commissioner Jones.
The Clark County Republican Party sent out another call to action for members to attend the public meeting again on Wednesday, continuing to voice their demands for Jones’ resignation.
Note: The author is acquainted with individuals mentioned in this article.
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