On May 2, a Nevada District Court judge ruled it constitutional for Jennifer "Jenny" Brekhus to continue to run for Reno Mayor in the 2022 election. 

A complaint filed by William Mantle last month challenges that Jenny Brekhus would not be eligible to be a candidate for Mayor during the 2022 election in compliance with Article 15 § 3(2) of the Nevada Constitution. 

An amendment was made to Article 15 of the Nevada Constitution in 1996. It states that “[n]o person may be elected to any state office or local governing body who has served in that office, or at the expiration of his current term if he is so serving will have served, 12 years or more, unless the permissible number of terms or duration of service is otherwise specified in this Constitution."

The Nevada District Court decides it is undisputed that if Brekhus would complete her current term as Reno City Council Member for Ward 1, that the Constitution would prohibit her from serving within that local governing body again, but because the scheduled end date for her current term as City Council Member puts her time as over 12 years in the same local governing body, her candidacy for Mayor of the City of Reno is disputed. 

The Court then looks at language to determine whether Brekhus is prohibited from being a candidate for Mayor of the City of Reno during the 2022 election. 

In 2012, Brekhus was elected to her first term as Reno City Council Member for Ward 1 and was subsequently elected to the same position in 2016 and 2020. 

Brekhus’s current position as City Council Member for Ward 1 is scheduled to end in 2024.

On March 17, 2022, Brekhus filed her Declaration of Candidacy for Mayor for the City of Reno. That term, for Mayor for the City of Reno, is scheduled to end in 2026.

The Court sees that the language “at the expiration of his current term if he is so serving will have served. . . .” is of which that is being challenged and comes to this solution:

"This language does not prohibit a person from becoming a candidate for a local governing body if, at the beginning of the term for which said person is a candidate, said person will not have served twelve years or more within said local governing body."

The Court concluded that if Councilmember Jenny Brekhus is successful in the 2022 Mayoral election, it would be impossible for her to have served for 12 years or more within the same local governing body, as she would then assume her new term as Mayor for the City of Reno. 

On May 2, 2022, the Court officially ordered that Article 15 § (3)(2) of the Nevada Constitution does not prohibit Brekhus’s eligibility to be a candidate for Mayor for the City of Reno during the 2022 election.

The Court also decided the challenge from William Mantle was not frivolous and it will not order Mantle to pay attorney's fees and costs.