
Carson City Clerk Jim Dear battles attempts to rein in behavior before censure hearing. When Carson political leaders consider whether to censure City Clerk Jim Dear on Tuesday, they will consider testimony from 20 aggrieved current and former employees who say he harassed, threatened and manipulated them for years — and continues to do so.
But even though others in City Hall certainly would face serious repercussions — even termination — for creating a hostile work environment, council members are helpless to do much at all about Dear’s alleged behavior.
That’s because he was elected by the voters, and can only be fired by the voters, through a recall election. That’s unless the state attorney general intervenes to remove Dear, the former mayor who was elected as city clerk in March.
Indeed, some residents are petitioning to qualify a recall election for the ballot. But Dear is fighting back against this second recall campaign against him. The first, when he was mayor in 2008, failed.
When Dear gave up the mayor’s gavel he had held for 11 years to seek the more lucrative city clerk’s position, he gave up a job he always coveted, one he said he was “married” to and worked around the clock at.