Friday, March 25, 2022 | 1:08 p.m.
A state ethics complaint filed by the city of North Las Vegas against a former city manager is being allowed to proceed after a review panel found “credible evidence to support a determination that just and sufficient cause exists” for the Nevada Commission on Ethics to render an opinion on accusations against the city’s former chief executive, Qiong Liu.
The update comes more than two years after the city filed the complaint alleging Liu used her position of authority to pressure subordinates to push through a $30,000-a-year raise on her behalf and then tried to cover it up.
“We appreciate the Commission’s diligence and care in ensuring that public officers are held accountable when they fail to avoid conflicts between their private interests and their duties to the public,” city spokesman Patrick Walker said in a statement. “The panel’s determination that just and sufficient cause exists to move forward with the ethics case against Dr. Liu is consistent with City Council’s decision to remove her from her position for cause for various acts of misconduct.”
Liu has said she believed she was entitled to the salary adjustment from $190,000 to $220,000 and that she was simply trying to correct an accounting error. City officials have called Liu’s alleged actions an attempt at pension-padding.
The City Council voted to fire Liu in February 2018 for cause without a severance package other than a payout of unused time off. The cause, the city said, was Liu trying to extend the raise without council approval.
Liu sued the city in January claiming wrongful termination. It is her third related lawsuit against North Las Vegas.
Liu worked for North Las Vegas from 2005 to 2018. She was appointed city manager in 2014, when the city was in the midst of a financial crisis.
