Katie Williams didn’t want to resign from her position as a trustee on the Clark County School Board.
During her nearly four years on the board, the outspoken conservative has often been lambasted for her social media commentary — such as her opposition to COVID-19 safety recommendations and comments mocking the Clark County School District, individual trustees, teachers and community leaders.
But despite having differing political views from many of other leaders in the district of about 300,000 students, the fifth largest in the country, she said she grew to appreciate it.
“There’s a lot of good that happens in that district,” she said in an interview with The Nevada Independent. “I’m a little emotional because I actually didn’t want to quit.”
She formally resigned Wednesday, hours after the Clark County District Attorney’s Office filed a petition asking a court to declare her seat vacant after it investigated and determined that Williams lives in Nebraska and intended to abandon her Nevada residence. The court filing came a week after the office sent Williams a letter asking her to voluntarily resign.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson told KTNV on Wednesday his office felt “very strongly” they could prove her Nebraska residency, after police obtained evidence that showed she had moved there, had employment there and moved her child there. He didn’t specify how long Williams is suspected of having lived in Nebraska.
Though Williams has already resigned, it hasn’t quelled community demands for more information into how long she is suspected of living out of state and accountability from anyone who might have known about her lack of residence — especially pertinent given that Williams’ departure opens up the possibility for 3-3 vote splits on the seven-member board of trustees.
Williams said the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told her last week it was investigating her on suspicions of “wrongful exercise of official power” and theft for her salary as a trustee, $750 per month.
In a lengthy statement Wednesday following her resignation, she accused Trustee Linda Cavazos and Chris Giunchigliani, a former assemblywoman, former teacher and union leader and county commissioner now out of office, of making false allegations against her that led to the investigations against her.
Williams, who wasn’t running for re-election, called the efforts to get her out of office about three months before her term ended an “unjust political prosecution” by individuals who didn’t share her conservative values, and thinks they were frustrated to be in the minority on major board votes, a claim Cavazos denies.
A Metro spokesperson confirmed Thursday there was an ongoing investigation into Williams. They didn’t confirm what charges they suspected Williams of or whether that investigation will continue after Williams’ resignation.
During a Wednesday afternoon phone interview, Williams said she still lives in her North Las Vegas residence and spends about 60 percent of her time there, though she often travels for work.
She said she’s getting married to someone who lives in Nebraska and is planning to move there at the end of the year. While she’s been traveling to Nebraska to get herself situated before then, she said her house in North Las Vegas is still fully furnished.
“I still live in it,” she said.
Though Williams feels the possible criminal charges wouldn’t hold up in court, she said the personal cost to fight it would be too great for her as well as Clark County taxpayers, ultimately chose to resign to avoid a prolonged and potentially costly legal battle.
“With the prospect of possible arrest and tens of thousands of dollars in legal battles on the horizon, the defense of a position that pays $750 per month just isn’t what I need as a single working mother,” she said. “What kills me is … I actually did care.”
Frequent absences
Elected in 2020, Williams served as the trustee for District B, which includes the Centennial Hills area in the northwest, North Las Vegas, Indian Springs and the Moapa area.
News reports from earlier this year began tracking how often Williams attended board meetings virtually — one report found that she was not physically present for 14 meetings from January 2023 to the end of February 2024.
Giunchigliani said she noticed Williams’ absence after reaching out to her in 2023 regarding a Mount Charleston school, Lundy Elementary, which is part of Williams’ district and was severely damaged by a tropical storm.
“She didn’t respond to us, didn’t return calls, didn’t come to meetings, nothing,” said Giunchigliani, who has a home on Mount Charleston.
Giunchigliani said she didn’t suspect that Williams might not live in Nevada until after she heard other trustees express concerns about Williams not showing up for board meetings and other district events.
The speculation into her residency grew after she posted videos on TikTok referring to living in the Las Vegas area in the past tense and referencing Nebraska.
Finally in late May, a group of five trustees, including Cavazos, sent a letter to Wolfson asking him to investigate whether Williams was living in her district.
Cavazos said she joined the letter after hearing from multiple constituents who raised similar concerns that Williams wasn’t responding to their emails and had asked about her whereabouts. Some were also surprised to see Cavazos and other trustees attending the graduation ceremonies for high schools in Williams’ district in her place. Cavazos said her involvement in the investigation request had nothing to do with personal animosity toward Williams or her political beliefs.
“We were frustrated, but it was not because we were in the minority,” Cavazos said. “It was because we felt badly for her community and for a whole portion of our district, having no representation.”
In June, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that Williams, who works in marketing and event planning, announced on social media that she had accepted a job with Nebraska-based Berry Law; a representative of the law office told a reporter that Williams generally was in the office Monday through Friday.
Williams said she only worked for the law firm in April and May, and would occasionally fly to Nebraska to film content for the firm, but resigned in June in part because her employer no longer allowed her to work remotely.
Giunchigliani said she decided to send her own complaint to Wolfson’s office asking for an investigation into Williams’ residency after she voted in favor of closing the damaged Lundy Elementary School, though the motion ended up failing 3-4.
Both complaints cited a state law that requires elected trustees to live in the districts they represent.
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 they live 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.
“Obviously I wasn’t making any false statements if the investigation took place and they found that she didn’t reside there,” Giunchigliani said.
Williams said she still has a Nevada driver’s license, her car is still registered in Nevada, she still gets her mail in Nevada and still votes in Nevada.
Williams said she tried to attend school board meetings in person at least once per month, but said her schedule made it difficult.
Williams attended the board’s Aug. 7 work session and Aug. 8 meeting, but did not attend its Aug. 22 meeting. She virtually attended the board’s Sept. 4 work session, the same day she received the letter from the district attorney’s office.
Williams said it wasn’t against board policy for trustees to attend meetings remotely, a flexibility she said many trustees regularly take advantage of. In her statement, she compared herself to Trustee Lisa Guzman, who she claimed also travels often for work and has a residence in Arizona.
Guzman, who was not among the group of trustees that requested Wolfson’s office investigate Williams, said in a statement that although her husband has a home in Arizona, her primary residence is in Henderson.
“My travel never made it so that my primary presence on the board was via phone,” Guzman, who is also not running for re-election, said. “Also, I never made a TikTok announcing that I moved anywhere. She has no right to equate my situation to be the same as hers.”
Cavazos said while attending board meetings remotely is allowed, trustees are generally expected to be there on a regular basis and be accessible to their constituents.
Next steps
Willaims’ resignation leaves the board of seven elected and voting trustees without an odd number of votes to prevent gridlocks, which Williams predicted will create chaos. It comes as the board is in the middle of a search for a new superintendent, which it anticipates to hire by November.
That scenario already played out during the school board’s Thursday meeting when the board was unable to vote on an appointment for a district committee due to a 3-3 stalemate. Williams had typically voted with the board’s majority — Board President Evelyn Garcia Morales, Vice President Irene Bustamante Adams and Trustee Lola Brooks — against the minority — Cavazos, Guzman and Trustee Brenda Zamora.
“I mentioned in almost every single meeting we’re just so focused on the wrong things. Nobody’s ever focused on the kids,” Williams said.
Under the school board’s policy for filling vacancies, the remaining Clark County trustees open up applications for the position and vote on their preferred candidate. During the school board’s Thursday meeting, community members urged the board to fill the vacancy immediately and hit pause on the superintendent search.
Although Williams has already resigned, Giunchigliani said questions remain as to whether anyone else on the board knew about her residency status prior to the district attorney’s court filing.
Community advocates including Hispanics in Politics President Fernando Romero have said they want Wolfson to investigate whether Garcia Morales knew that Williams might not be living in Nevada.
Guzman said she thinks such an investigation is appropriate.
Last week, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) demanded Garcia Morales, who the union has opposed for her support of former Superintendent Jesus Jara, resign for “gross negligence.”
Garcia Morales, who is running for re-election, said in a Friday statement to The Nevada Independent that she remains committed to student success “despite ongoing distractions from a minority group” in the community.
“It is these same detractors that create ongoing fear, and division,” she said. “It is my greatest hope that one day our community will see the patterns of behavior that conveniently distract all of us from our greatest purpose, our students.”
Giunchigliani and CCEA have also said any votes taken after Williams allegedly moved out of state should be rescinded, but the district said in a statement last week that a trustee’s resignation or removal from office does not affect any prior votes or actions taken by the board.
Though she’s sad to be leaving the board, Williams said she’s proud to have been able to be there for her constituents.
“I was so happy and so blessed to be able to talk to parents and fix issues, and I couldn’t fix everything, but I could fix a lot of things at my level, and it was great,” she said.
