City Council Splits Vote To Renew Warren Hardy Contract

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A minor skirmish flared up in the Mesquite City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 28, over the routine renewal of a contract with Warren Hardy, the City’s lobbyist at the Nevada State Legislature.

After a brief presentation made by Hardy, Councilwoman Sandra Ramaker stated that she had strong reservations about renewing the contract with Hardy. Ramaker complained that Hardy’s reporting back to the council lacked adequate information. She believed that more detail was needed on how he was representing the City of Mesquite.

“I think that he has been with us for way too long and gotten too comfortable,” Ramaker said. “I think he represents too many people and can’t possibly be checking on all that we need. I would really like for us to give some thought to looking for another lobbyist.”

Ramaker pointed out that Hardy also represents the Virgin Valley Water District which she believed is a conflict of interest.

Councilwoman Karen Dutkowski agreed with Ramaker. “I’ve never been in touch with Mr. Hardy nor has he been in touch with me,” Dutkowski said. “I think there needs to be more collaboration on our needs.”

Councilman Brian Wursten said that he strongly disagreed with both of these comments.
“I don’t think you are going to find anybody more respected than Mr. Hardy at the state legislature,” Wursten said. “He is well connected and well respected and that is exactly what we want representing us up there.”

Wursten added that he had always found Hardy to be very accessible.
“If you want to talk to Mr. Hardy you just make a phone call to him, he will usually answer,” Wursten said. “If he doesn’t, he always get back to you. I don’t know exactly what we are after here. But if there is information you want to know, just call him.”

Councilman George Gault agreed. “It would be hard to find somebody with more experience,” he said. “I’ve found Warren accessible and effective. So I am going to support him.”

Councilman Wes Boger also had only good things to say about Hardy’s work for the City. Boger did ask about details of the contract renewal. Deputy City Manager Martine Green explained that the contract before the council was the same one approved last year. At that time, it had a one year automatic extension, she said.

Given the economic difficulties wrought to the city by the COVID pandemic, Hardy had reduced his fee in the contract last year from the usual $4,000 to $2,000 per month. That had not changed.
Mesquite Mayor Al Litman said that he had worked directly with Hardy on many occasions in lobbying for the city.
“I have always found him to be more than satisfactory in what he does,” Litman said. “I’ve never found any fault with his work for us in the legislature.”

Dutkowski spoke again stating that her concern was still in what the city is getting for the money it pays to Hardy. “I have asked specifically for more reports, more information on what is going on and I got nothing more than just a paragraph every month,” Dutkowski said. “If we are going to approve this sort of thing, the city should be getting what we are paying for. And I feel that we are not getting that.”

“Mr. Hardy reports what is going on, I think, quite adequately,” Litman responded. “There are many times, in an off year with the legislature not in session, that there is really nothing going on. But when we have had bill drafts and so forth, our reports have been quite extensive.”

Hardy asked to respond to the complaints made against him. He said he had expressed willingness to meet with Ramaker to address her concerns. “But she never took me up on it,” he said.

Hardy added that he had indeed met with Dutkowski about a matter regarding the school district. “I stayed in touch with her on that,” he added. “We did meet. So where the notion that she has never met with me comes from, I don’t know.”

“I have done this for a long time,” Hardy continued. “I am very good at what I do. I am considered one of the top three lobbyists in the state of Nevada. My fingerprints are all over this community, from the Rec Center to the DMV to the College of Southern Nevada to the city charter. I am getting a bit tired of having my name disparaged in this way. I respectfully ask that they stop bringing this up in public unless there are specifics to bring forward on how I can do better.”

In the end, Gault made a motion to approve the renewal of Hardy’s contract. The motion was adopted with a split vote: Gault, Wursten and Boger voted in favor; Ramaker and Dutkowski were opposed.