Wave of support helps Lyon County manager keep job

Lyon County Manager Donna Kristaponis gets to keep her job after county staff, citizens and officials from neighboring counties showed up in force Friday to lend their support.

Kristaponis could have been fired at the meeting of the Lyon County Commissioners, which was called after two commissioners asked her to resign.

Those commissioners, Bob Milz and Phyllis Hunewill, said little at the meeting and refused to say why they wanted Kristaponis out. Even Kristaponis said she was unsure of the reasoning.

Hunewill said she was advised by attorneys not to make any statements, but added, "We are very concerned about this county. We don't need to constantly shout barbs at each other."

Their efforts to removed Kristaponis failed when more than 50 people showed up at the meeting and all 24 who spoke defended the county manager. After each speaker, applause filled the hearing. No one spoke up against her.

"In the world of sports, when a team has a losing record, it's the manager that gets cut," said Nick Malarchik, Lyon County building director. "I don't think we have a losing record. If you terminate her without cause, it would make us a losing team."

At the end of the three-hour meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to adopt Lyon County Human Resources Director Steve Englert's offer to arrange mediation between Kristaponis and the commissioners to improve their working relationship.

After the meeting, Kristaponis said she was touched by the support she received from a cross-section of the community. In addition to department heads, advisory board members, residents and managers of Churchill and Storey counties spoke on her behalf.

"I was very appreciative and pleased and warmed with what happened," she said. "I guess that's the reason one feels most strongly about staying."

She admitted this kind of experience might make a person not want to stay, but added, "I really like Lyon County. I love the opportunity and the challenge here. I believe the county has made tremendous strides in the last two years."

She acknowledged that sometimes her leadership might have been taken the wrong way.

"There is a difference between pushing and leading, and if some of the commissioners think I was pushing, well, pushing isn't as well received as leading," she said.

The conflict began when Hunewill and Milz went to Kristaponis after the Sept. 7 regular meeting to ask for her resignation; when that didn't come, they began the termination proceedings.

The commissioners voted 3-2 to begin termination proceedings. The third vote for the proceedings was Don Tibbals. Voting against the proceedings were Leroy Goodman and Chet Hillyard.

When it became her turn to defend herself Friday, Kristaponis endorsed Englert's mediation offer, then directed her comments to each of the five commissioners. One by one she discussed her relationship with each.

She said Hunewill and Tibbals came from construction backgrounds and "focus on a more pointed aspect of county business, rather than the overarching aspects" which affects how they interacted with her.

Kristaponis noted that Hunewill had complained about not getting the same respect from the county manager as the other commissioners, yet the commissioner regularly worked with department heads without including Kristaponis.

She said Hunewill gave credit for accomplishing goals to the staff and commissioners, but not to Kristaponis.

"But I set the tone and stage the environment," she said. "Why wasn't it happening before I arrived?"

Kristaponis noted that Tibbals hates regulations, and said when he wants to eliminate regulations and the board does not support him, he blames her. She also said Tibbals tended to micromanage.

As for Milz, Kristaponis said he gave off mixed messages. "Last week you said I was an excellent county manager, but I'm not sure that's what you said to others," she said.

She added she was concerned that Milz' friendship with some consultants and developers meant that they were dealing directly with him and not going through the county manager's office.

She praised Goodman and Hillyard for being able to see "the big picture," and always referring problems through her office rather than going around her to department heads.

Kristaponis, who earns $118,000 per year, said commissioners' role is to set policy and hers is to implement it. She said she is responsible to the commissioners as a board, but not to the commissioners as individuals.

Kristaponis is a past Reno city manager, and has worked in management and planning in Houston and Austin, Texas, in Palm Beach County, Fla. and in Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

"What I have a problem with is the suggestion that we didn't keep you informed," she said. "Some of you want to run the county in the old ward style. If that's what you want, I'm not the kind of manager for you."

Goodman said commissioners owed the public an apology for dragging the issue out.

"One word I heard having lunch in Dayton is 'recall,'" he said. "You don't recall the county manager, so we can only guess who the recall is about."

Rick Zierenberg, Lyon County code enforcement officer, said it should never have come to this point.

"This was a personality issues and they need to be handled differently," he said. "But I think they did the right thing."

- Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.