Opinion: The County Charter shows that Councilor Fuentes must resign Fourth Plain Forward or County Council

Rob Anderson
Reformcast host, Reform Clark County founder

Clark County Councilor Wil Fuentes cannot continue to hold both his public office and his private job at Fourth Plain Forward without violating the County Charter. He needs to resign from one of them, as I have laid out in a recent Ethics complaint filed last week and the subject of this week’s episode ofReformcast E34.

However, Councilor Fuentes, who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and the County Charter, has apparently chosen to ignore the Charter in order to continue taking a paycheck from both the County and Fourth Plain Forward, a contractor of Clark County.

Charter Section 8.8 is clear and categorical: no elected official may accept employment or compensation from any person or entity that has a contract with the County. Fourth Plain Forward has repeatedly received substantial County funding, including approximately $299,000 in Community Development Block Grant money in 2025. Fuentes has been employed by the organization both before and after taking office in January 2025. He has recused himself from some funding votes, but not all votes, and recusal does not erase a prohibition written into the Charter itself.

An ethics complaint has been filed documenting this conflict. The facts are not in serious dispute. The only remaining question is whether the County will enforce its own Charter or continue to look the other way while a sitting councilor draws a paycheck from a County contractor, questions I’ve posed to the County Manager and Prosecuting Attorney in a letter but haven’t received a response yet.

This is not a technicality or a paperwork issue. The Charter exists to prevent exactly this kind of dual role — where an elected official has a financial relationship with an organization that receives County money. Allowing it to continue tells every other official and every contractor that the rules are flexible when convenient.

Councilor Fuentes has a simple choice. He can keep his position at Fourth Plain Forward and step down from the Council, or he can keep his seat on the Council and resign from the nonprofit. Continuing to hold both is incompatible with the Charter he swore to uphold. The public should expect him — and County leadership — to resolve this promptly and cleanly.