It's been a busy day for the Sparks City Council. To start, they voted in a new city manager, Dion Louthan.
The city council also agreed on a settlement with former police officer, George Forbush, for $525,000.
As we've been reporting, Forbush has been suing the City of Sparks for an alleged violation of his first amendment rights in 2020. This comes after the city put him on administrative leave and a four-day suspension without pay for posting comments about protests in the U.S. on his personal X account formerly known as Twitter. Court documents state that he was unjustly disciplined because of his political opinions and should not face consequences for his off-duty speech. The settlement will be paid by the city's insurer.
After that item, the council then voted 5-0 to welcome Dion Louthan as their new city manager.
"He's just very employee centric, very employee oriented," said Ed Lawson, Mayor of City of Sparks. "But he also comes from an area very similar to ours where he has to work with jurisdictions."
Mayor Lawson says the community meeting was very helpful with the final decision as well. The council says they found Louthan's engagement with the community was very well done.
"He answered questions honestly and forthright and people could feel that coming across," explains Lawson.
Next, a contract will be created for Louthan and his lawyers to review and allow him a sixty-day notice to transition from his previous job to this one. He will then spend thirty days learning everything he needs to know from Acting City Manager and Police Chief Chris Crawforth.
"He needs to know where all the meeting places are, all who's who in the zoo, and just get him around to meet the community," adds Lawson.
Lawson says he's looking forward to seeing Chief Crawforth getting back to his normal schedule.
"That poor man has just worked his tail off the last six months or so," Lawson said. "He's got a little more to go but I'm really looking forward to bringing Dion in and showing him why we're so proud of this area and why we're so proud of Sparks in particular."
