Douglas County school board president comments on Gilbert’s contract

MINDEN, Nev. (KOLO) - Susan Jansen, President of the Douglas County School District board of trustees, is releasing a statement regarding their legal bills from Joey Gilbert.

She says their monthly invoices were to be billed against the $7,500 a month retainer, which was not the case with their prior legal counsel, who were retained at a rate of $5,000 per month for certain services.

The district was also being billed for hours worked, meaning in total, they say they were paying $60,000 a year to retain counsel on top of the services they provided.

Over the last three months he has been providing the district services, Gilbert has invoiced a total of $76,950. That amount is broken down by the following charges:

$8,000 - on-boarding as new counsel, review of current matters and due diligence
$2,400 - review of outside complaints regarding current and prior administration
$15,300 - agenda review and preparation, drafting bylaws, policies, regulations, and supporting materials
$7,500 - requests made by administrative staff
$5,200 - requests for additional information by the Board
$7,500 - Board Meetings, and pre-and post-meetings with Board Members
$31,050 - Open Meeting Law Complaints, Writ of Mandamus, and Public Records Requests.

In her statement, Jansen says Gilbert and his team “have gone out of their way to accommodate our Board, and indeed have exceeded our expectations in their ability to identify and provide solutions for the many problems our Board is facing; and they have done so in record time.”