Clark County School District officials have kept mum in the wake of the Clark County District Attorney’s Office’s Wednesday letter to Trustee Katie Williams asking her to voluntarily vacate her seat after finding she is no longer a resident of Nevada.
The letter asked Williams to confirm no later than Monday her intention to voluntarily vacate her seat. If not, the office said it is prepared to commence legal proceedings to declare her seat vacant.
As of Friday, Williams has not responded to requests for a comment on whether she will resign. But she remotely attended the Clark County School Board’s Wednesday evening work session, and participated in two 4-3 votes.
The saga has highlighted Nevada’s law requiring elected trustees to reside in the district they represent — and a lack of clarity on the legal consequences if they don’t.
Though the elected office can be deemed vacant if the trustee stops living in the district, it’s unclear if there are any punitive legal consequences for those found to violate the law, especially if the office-holder isn’t running for re-election.
While the letter did not specify how long Williams has been living outside of Nevada, the Clark County Education Association argues that all of her votes following her move should be vacated. Others have also called for Williams to return the money she’s been paid as a trustee, $750 per month, and even for her to face legal consequences.
But during a similar 2021 case in Washoe County, a law firm hired by the school board deemed that votes made by a former trustee were valid until she resigned. A UNLV law professor said state law is unclear on whether Williams could face legal action.
Here’s what past examples and experts say could happen next:
Similar circumstances
Three years ago, Jacqueline Calvert resigned from the Washoe County School Board after it became public that she no longer lived in the district she was elected to serve.
Calvert, who was elected in 2018 to represent District F that covers the east side of the Washoe County School District, said in a statement that she had recently moved, and did not realize her new address wasn’t a part of her district.
An independent investigation by Gunderson Law Firm, which was hired by the school board, found that Calvert had updated her mailing and physical address, which is approximately a mile from her former residence, with the district’s human resources department in March 2019, three months after she took office.
A second investigation by the firm said it was unclear if Calvert “knew she had moved out of her district or whether she took any affirmative acts to confirm she remained in her district after moving.”
But the firm’s analysis of state law determined that all of Calvert’s actions and votes taken prior to her resignation were valid, as the trustee position had not been formally declared vacant.
“Because [the state law] is not self-executing, a school board trustee remains an elected official until there is some proceeding declaring his or her vacant or until he or she resigns,” the firm concluded. “Because she was, statutorily, still the elected official throughout her tenure, and continued to do the work of a trustee, each of her votes cast prior to her resignation remain valid and effective.”
The firm advised the board against filing litigation to take back the nearly $60,000 in salary Calvert received as a trustee while she was no longer living in her district as it wouldn’t be cost effective.
What’s next
Questions surrounding Williams’ residency began swirling earlier this year after she missed several school board meetings or attended them remotely. She also posted a video on TikTok where she referred to living in Nevada in the past tense and made other social media posts related to living in Nebraska.
Williams has previously said she works for a company with offices in Utah, Nebraska and California and travels between the three states.
State law defines an elected official’s legal domicile by whether they actually live there and whether they intend to stay there. The law states that while a person can have more than one residence, they can only have one legal domicile.
Evidence of a person’s legal domicile can include where an individual lives the majority of the time and the length of time they have lived there, where that individual lives with their partner or other family members, where they are registered to vote, the address listed on their driver’s license or vehicle registration and the address listed on their pay stub.
“There is no magic number of days to establish residence except for the 30 days before filing to run for an office, and there is no magic sign that you are a resident,” said Las Vegas attorney Bradley Schrager, who often represents Democrats and Democratic-aligned groups.
UNLV Law Professor David Orentlicher, who is also a Nevada assemblyman, said if Williams declines to resign by the date set by the district attorney’s office, officials can commence legal action, which would include a court hearing, to declare that office vacant.
“Then the court, after holding its hearings, will decide whether Williams is indeed required to step down,” he said.
Orentlicher said Williams could dispute the district attorney’s office findings that she has moved out of state during the hearing.
He added it was unclear whether Williams would face any legal ramifications for not previously disclosing whether she has moved out of the state. He said that typically, legal action is taken after candidates running for office falsely claim they are eligible to serve in the office they are seeking.
Williams, who joined the board in 2021, isn’t seeking re-election.
