Nevada Democrat Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones is under fire after the board of commissioners passed an ordinance that ousted one of Jones’ Republican opponents from her position as planning commissioner.
Jenna Waltho was appointed to Nevada’s planning commission by Democrat Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft at the beginning of last year. Each of the commissioners on the board appoints one planning commissioner who makes recommendations to the board about land use plans and other local zoning issues.
If Waltho advances to the general election and defeats Jones, she would be the lone Republican on the board that is currently made up of seven Democrats. Four of those seven commissioners are reportedly part of an “ultra-leftist bloc” that forces the three moderate Democrats to go along with their far-left agenda.
Although Waltho’s post on the nonpartisan planning commission is not slated to end until January 2025, she launched her campaign to replace Jones in September of last year. However, in March, the board of commissioners passed an ordinance that paved the way for Waltho to be terminated from her position as planning commissioner.
Under previous Clark County law, planning commissioners could only be removed from their post with just cause after a majority vote from the board of commissioners and a public hearing. Now, March’s ordinance makes clear that planning commissioners “serve at the pleasure of the board,” which means they can be fired at any time without justification.
The Clark County board of commissioners used this ordinance to remove and replace Waltho from her position. Commissioner Naft, who appointed Waltho, accused her of using her nonpartisan role politically.
“From my view, I think she has tried to use that role politically and that’s really where that had to end for me,” Naft said.
Naft defended the March ordinance, telling the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “it seems pretty common sense that if you hire somebody, you should be able to fire somebody.”
However, Waltho believes the board’s ordinance was “definitely a political move” due to her campaign to replace Jones.
Waltho told Breitbart News:
I know what’s going on out here, and I’ve done a really great job on when I was on Enterprise town advisory board, and [Commissioner Naft] knew I was going to be great for the job. And then here we go. I come out running against his colleague, Justin Jones. And all of a sudden, I’m let go with really no explanation. So you know, this is politics. This is definitely a political move. You know, this basically just solidifies that I am a threat to Commissioner Jones and a threat to flipping that seat to get at least one conservative voice on that board.
Waltho speculated that the Democrat board members passed the ordinance after data showed she would be a formidable threat to Jones if she advances to the general election.
“So I don’t know if the Democrats got a hold of some polling numbers. And you know, maybe I was polling really well against Justin Jones, and he wasn’t and this is the action that they took,” Waltho said.
Waltho explained that she did not want what happened to her to happen to any future planning commissioners.
“And my real concern is, I don’t want this to happen to anybody else. I don’t want this to happen to another planning commissioner, if they decide to take the next steps to want to be an elected official so that they can continue to serve as I’ve done,” she said.
“I don’t want this to happen to a town board member. I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
She believes that Jones feels “threatened” by her campaign, which possibly led him to get “into his colleagues ear” that they need to remove her from the planning commission.
“The boys club on the county commission does feel threatened by me because I’m the voice of the residents,” she concluded. “I don’t have, you know, major developers and special interests in my pocket like our current county commissioner. And I think that’s the real threat here.”
Waltho’s removal from the planning commission is not Jones’s first time under fire. The Nevada Democrat was accused of deleting text messages after orchestrating an alleged “quid pro quo” with Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) to harm a private company.