JoAnn Conner and City of South Lake Tahoe settle differences

It's been months of lawsuits, open arguments, censure of a councilperson, a community taking sides and a mounting legal tab. City Councilwoman JoAnn Conner, the City of South Lake Tahoe and City Manager Nancy Kerry have come to a compromise and have signed a settlement agreement.

In October of 2015, the City Council voted to censure Conner over what they said was "abusive, bullying and intolerant behavior."

Conner in turn sued the City in December, challenging them and the City Manager of preventing her from doing her job. Since then there have been discussions on how to settle differences and move forward.

The time to move forward is today as the announcement has been made that, on August 18, 2016, all sides have signed a Compromise and Settlement Agreement, with nobody admitting to wrongdoing.

The City never filed any lawsuits, and just spent time in court defending themselves, creating a large bill for legal services that must be paid from taxpayer dollars.

In the agreement, all involved parties deny all allegations of liability, deny that have acted in any way illegally or improperly, and have agreed to resolve the litigation solely for the purpose of compromising and settling matters in dispute. They also said by signing the agreement it does not constitute an admission of truth or validity to any of the facts alleged in the litigation.

Conner will pay her attorney fees, and the City will pay their expenses. Kerry's fees were covered by the City.

Here are the terms of the settlement:

- The Mayor presides over City Council meetings, and Councilmembers may ask questions of staff only after being recognized by the Mayor.

- Conner and the other Councilmembers will be offered pre-agenda meetings prior to City Council meetings. Conner may attend such meetings which will also be attended by the City Clerk, the City Manager and potentially the City Attorney, Deputy or Assistant City Manager and one other Councilmember.

- Appointments to all City committees, subcommittees and Joint Power Authority boards ("JPA") will be pursuant to California law, including the Brown Ace.

- No City Councilmember will have card key access to the administrative offices. This access was previously denied to Conner after the censure meeting.

- Upon request by any City Councilmember, the City Clerk will place the Councilmember's Agenda Notebook on the front counter of the administrative offices, and the City Clerk will email all City Councilmembers, including Conner, when they are available for her to review and retrieval.

- Conner's personal email(s) shall no longer be auto-forwarded to the City Manager and City Attorney, and she will have the ability to email City staff for matters related to Golden Bear Events (GBE), her company. However, Conner must "cc", or carbon copy, the City Manager and City Attorney on any emails to City staff related to GBE business, or any other personal business. Conner's contact with City staff for matters related to GBE business, or any other personal business, will be limited to email except that she can have in-person and telephone contact with City staff for day of event concerns, emergencies, matters requiring immediate attention or other such situations as dictated by common sense. Conner can respond in-person or by phone to personal or phone communications directed to her from City staff for matters related to, or regarding, her personal business, and if such response is by email, Conner will "cc" the City Manager and the City Attorney.

- Conner's city email(s) (i.e. emails originating from or sent to her City email account) will no longer be auto-forwarded to the City Manager and City Attorney, and Conner can email the City Manager and City Attorney regarding City business with, if desired by Conner, a "cc" to individual members of the City staff relating to the items of business regarding which she is writing. The City Council practice is to email the City Manager, and this is the same for all Councilmembers.

- A joint press release will be made by both parties (not an actual press release was made, just a copy of this agreement was send). Besides this, no party will otherwise comment on public social media or via blog, other than to reference the press release and agreement providing for the resolution of this matter.

After the settlement was signed, Conner said she'd dismiss all court cases "with prejudice."

The provisions of the agreement will remain in effect until the new City Council is seated in December, 2016.

"I'm looking forward to being able to focus on the business of the city," said Mayor Wendy David.