Allegations of special treatment surface in race for LV Municipal Court 

The race for a seat on the Las Vegas Municipal Court features three women with experience working with the court. But unlike her opponents, Deputy City Attorney Rebecca Wolfson received accommodations that are generally unavailable to other employees, such as higher pay than her colleagues and not taking a required pre-employment drug test.  

“I don’t know where you’re hearing this information from. I was told that I didn’t have to,” Wolfson said in an interview Monday when acknowledging she wasn’t required to submit to a drug test. 

“Any individual offered employment will be required to pass a pre-employment drug test and complete background check,” says the city’s job solicitations for the position.

Wolfson, the daughter of Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson and former Judge Jackie Glass, was hired in 2017 under former City Attorney Brad Jerbic, who held the position when Steve Wolfson was appointed to the city council in 2004 and won elections in 2005 and 2009. 

Jerbic says he left the task of choosing job candidates to their superiors. 

“I would talk to HR and say ‘Hey, what happened here?’” he suggested in an interview. “But it wasn’t because she’s a Wolfson.” 

The City did not provide a response to questions by the Current’s deadline. 

Wolfson says she doesn’t know why she was not required to be tested. 

Wolfson is also paid more than her colleagues in the same position, and more than some city attorneys with more experience.   

Wolfson clerked for District Judge Valerie Adair in 2016 and was hired by the city a year later. As a Deputy City Attorney I in 2018, her first full year of employment, Wolfson earned base pay of $73,311, compared with a Deputy City Attorney II who earned $55,130 and a Deputy City Attorney III who earned $64,085, according to Transparent Nevada, a website that reports the pay of government workers. 

In 2022, the last year for which data is available, Wolfson earned $110,699 in base pay as a Deputy City Attorney II, while others in the same classification topped out at $86,577. 

“I cannot think of any legitimate or professional reason, having looked at her judicial questionnaire that describes her prior experience, that would justify that pay rate,” says Rae Canady, one of Wolfson’s opponents who worked as a Municipal Court administrator.

Wolfson confirms the disparity in pay prompted protests from other attorneys in the department, who eventually met with city officials. Wolfson says she did not attend the meeting but was told of it. 

“I don’t know if I find this to be relevant to being a judge,” Wolfson said of the salary disparity. “It was just brought to my attention that there was a discrepancy within HR that occurred when I was hired.”

“I think it is relevant, because it’s an overall picture,” says Canady. “I think that the public might have an impression that there’s nepotism going on, which is unfair to the other people who don’t have those family ties. I don’t come from legacy. I don’t come from wealth. I have to follow the rules. Everyone should have to follow the rules, in particular when your job is to prosecute people for not following the rules. There’s a bit of hypocrisy and there’s an appearance of impropriety, and somebody who wants to be a judge should avoid that appearance at all costs.”

District Attorney Wolfson says he played no part in his daughter receiving a higher salary and not being required to drug test.  

“As usual, your sources are providing you with false information on each assertion,” he said. “Rebecca was hired on her own merits and qualifications.”

The city also did not respond by deadline to inquiries about Wolfson’s pay. 

Candidates tout their qualifications

Wolfson says she has experience “on both sides of the burden of proof. Not only do I have the practical experience of being the only candidate in my race that has actually practiced in the Municipal Court, I’ve handled probably close to 100 bench trials. On the civil side, I’ve had the ability to do jury trials, and I’ve also practiced in every court in Nevada except Family Court.” 

Shannon Nordstrom, who is also seeking the seat, has served as an alternate judge in Municipal Court, a temporary judge in Las Vegas Justice Court, where she heard small claims, and was appointed by the City Council to serve as an interim Municipal Court judge. In 2018 she was appointed as a full-time hearing master in Municipal Court, but left in October to spend time with her family and prepare for the campaign. 

She says while on the Municipal Court bench, she initiated two specialty courts – Fresh Start traffic court, and Fresh Start specialty court. 

Nordstrom says individuals experiencing homelessness and who meet certain criteria “have the option to participate in the Fresh Start program, where a specific case plan would be developed for them based on their needs to address all of the barriers that either rendered them homeless or kept them homeless.” 

Those barriers include substance use treatment, mental health treatment, medical treatment, vital documents, General Education Development (GED) and basic life skills. 

“Everybody’s story is different. It really was tailored for each individual to help them overcome whatever they were going through. It gave them the tools they needed, to achieve stable housing, stable income, and be able to sustain that. One of the reasons I love Municipal Court is because I believe it’s a place where we really can help people.”

Canady, who attended law school at Marquette, has worked as a case manager, child custody evaluator, grant reviewer, trial attorney, child advocate, mediator, and court administrator, including at Municipal Court, which she thinks could do more to help people. 

“Nearly every policy that I advanced that I thought was forward thinking and proactive as opposed to reactive, and ideas that I thought would really help folks in our community, were shot down by the judges. I realized then that the judges here, and specifically at Municipal Court, were the gatekeepers of change, so if I wanted to be an agent of positive change, I was going to have to become a judge.”

Canady says she was eventually fired from Municipal Court. 

“I was not given a reason. My opinion is that they were tired of me continuing to push certain policies that they were not interested in implementing,” she says, adding she decided the following day to run for the bench. “Even though I had been licensed in Wisconsin at that point for almost 18 years, I still had to take the bar exam here in Nevada.” 

Municipal Court, unlike others, does not require that judges have a minimum number of years of legal practice. 

Canady believes Municipal Court is the court “closest to the community.” Toward that goal, if elected she says she intends to create a community advisory council, with whom she will share data from the court. 

“I want that council to tell me how I can improve my performance. And even more importantly, how we can improve the outcomes of folks who come before the court ,” she says. 

Canady and Nordstrom lag Wolfson in endorsements. Canady has one endorsement from the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) Action. 

Nordstrom has no endorsements from organizations or unions. She says she believes “there’s a glitch in notifying candidates” of the opportunity to be endorsed. 

Wolfson has racked up numerous endorsements, including Laborers’ Local 872, Clark County Prosecutors Association, Clark County District Attorney Investigators Association, and the Clark County Firefighters.

“I do have a lot of support from the community,” she says. “I’m very grateful for that after being born and raised in Las Vegas. And having parents that are prominent in the industry, I’ve had the ability to make really great connections throughout my entire life.” 

Early voting in the primary election begins May 25 and runs through June 7.  Election day is June 11.