By: John L. Smith
It looks like it’s off to ethics study hall for attorney and Reno City Councilman Devon Reese after a State Commission on Ethics review panel determined he failed to abstain from voting on contract negotiations involving the city’s police and fire unions that also had a business relationship with his employer.
Reese works as an attorney at Hutchison & Steffen, which represents the Reno Professional Administrative Group and Reno Police Protective Association. After receiving a five-count complaint from a member of the public in September, a review panel in October unanimously found there was credible evidence that Reese had violated two ethics laws.
In issuing its reprimand in March, the ethics commission offered the councilman a deferral agreement. If he signs off, he will be required to avoid drawing another valid ethics complaint for two years, receive approved ethics training, develop an approved “disclosure and abstention check process” to use whenever Hutchison & Steffen clients do business before the council, and submit minutes from all Reno City Council meetings that reference his law firm’s clients for one year.
Wrist slap complete and case closed, right?
Not so fast.
After reading Reese’s glib public statements to the press in the wake of the reprimand, I’m guessing he won’t be the only public official and member of the State Bar of Nevada heading back to ethics class. Reese wasn’t exactly contrite:
“I appreciate the Commission’s diligent and thoughtful work on this. Ethics is an area of law that is about defining the gray areas, which can be difficult. Two lawyers can see the same facts and apply legal ethics differently. It is not a cut and dried area defined in statute, but a series of close judgment calls. …
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/reno-councilmans-ethics-comments-generate-new-ethical-questions