focus on the media for quite a while and this will take up today's local news but before this story she via t v news would like to thank our into writers give you t v do this broadcast monday through friday and then s the lack of common procedures cost nevada city a high profile lawsuit last week where a city clerk who was accused of incompetence that led to four hundred thousand dollars in one collected fees wand up receiving two hundred seventy five thousand dollars settlement according to human embarrassing chapter in the bet is city's history a classic illustration of a need for chain with the times according to some residents when the city eliminated wilcox barnes job as office operations supervisor june two thousand six auditors had revealed city had failed to collect about four hundred thousand dollars in water sewer bills as well as business fees during her years of financial oversight some residents and people business people have complained the woman parks barnes was uncooperative uninformed and on helpful when approached on city matters it's nice to have a scapegoat i guess countered her lawyer katherine jones there was no discipline at city hall during wilcox  misconduct or incompetence it opens them up to liability under federal and state law said patricia matthews a human resource consultant with workplace solutions matthews based in st louis how business businesses craft human resource plans and is a member of the highest end of the society for human resource management somebody could say well they terminated me because i'm over forty around a woman matthew said without a consistency following followed written procedure that workers can win the case despite the circumstances even written policies are not a guarantee of defense you want you might have the policy but making sure their supervisors follow it is a whole different thing that you said no one at city hall documented will cost sponsored alleged shortcomings in the prison and presented as evidence against her said jones there was no document as such conceded jimmy anderson city attorney for twenty four years wilcox barnes did best job she could said jones i have good evidence that she was very competent under exceedingly difficult circumstances the lawyer added there were problems that weren't hers that she was being blamed for so when what carts barns sued the city claiming wrongful termination the city had little to offer in its defense is city consultant on human resources issues said your first defense would be to have a policy said bob austin a human resource consultant who was working off and on for nevada sin city since one nine hundred ninety two travelers insurance wound up making the two hundred seventy five thousand dollar payment to wilcox barnes and her lawyer but the city's insurance rates could increase as a result some people worried the city policy will be canceled altogether in addition to the money the settlement included a written public apology from the city for an implication that miss wilcox farms was be disciplined for not performing her job to competently settlement deals deeper problems in the way nevada city has handled this to fairs for many many years unlike nevada city most cities have a personnel department in grass valley interim city administrator jeff folds said he knows it's important for city to keep up with the latest employment standers that's why we have legal representation to make sure we do all the things properly and it eighty five dollars an hour i'm glad he's on the ball the lack of human resource policies and procedures and the lack of supervision to fulfill the requirements have impacted the bottom line at city hall and crafted frustration report released last tuesday documenting water and sewer income an area supervised by wilcox barnes shows nevada city collected less money for water sewer services in two thousand and four and five and two thousand  and six biscoe years than in two thousand and three and four despite an increase in water and sewer rates also there was a little organized water and sewer documentation there was no customer files for water and sewer accounts through four states when it came to a job description for the position of city lacked any written standards i couldn't get a job description for city workers when i was running for council said councilwoman she was don who has was elected to the council in two thousand and six it was extremely disappointing and i might say that i would have a picture of her but there isn't one that i can find even on google the city also lacked any policy for work or expectations such as offering courteous customer service criticism directed at wilcox pons one city worker was not received review in eighteen years councilwoman started said others have gone without a review council members acknowledged during the summer the process of eliminating wilcox barnes position probably would have gone smoother with a clear policy says sixty year councilwoman consul man steve control we kind of stumbled around for a while having such policies and procedures in place potentially could have made the process easier of eliminating willcox points position added anderson i guess you could say yes if the dick difficulties of what our sponsors matter were just based on not having a policy said eight year councilman david mackay ok blamed wilcox pies for folly failing to get help in doing your job rather than reinvent the will she could have sought outside help on city finances from the california league of cities or other cities mckay said there's lots of sources for communication between miller and wilcox barnes also hundred twenty days of the settlement signing it common human resource practice city council members also vowed during the summer to provide a job description for each city prison outlining what it took back to give the workers as well as process for an annual reviews austin snap a consulting firm austin and also she has created a policy for airline employee grievances which council members adopted for a ninety day trial period november two thousand and five the policy was put in place specifically to deal with public worker employee grievances anderson said city officials did not adopt the policy permanently and it was allowed to expire before officials eliminated lookalikes bond position anderson addin austin also created a personal handbook detailing expected employee behavior hiring policies and how the city would discipline employees the personal handbook never was adopted miller offered various explanations as to why ranging from he didn't remember to explaining that austin offered the proposal three years late i think it was not timely miller said we didn't get anything the first couple of years and we were in the middle of a financial investigation when the report was offered austin disagreed with miller's assessment i started the manual in two thousand may two thousand and five and submitted a pharmacopoeia late january two thousand and six austin s nevada city's policies came to climax with last week's data meant to city records were kept half passively for decades according to critical county grand jury report and the consultant report the may two thousand  review by austin associates revealed the city was paying for insurance on thirty six vehicles eight of which had been sold one as far back as nine hundred ninety two some locations received no water or sewer billing whatsoever the report said saying i don't want to go back and dig it up again robinson also declined to address the city had in human resource policies and procedures during his tenure councilman mckay described robinson and wilcox barnes as part of a different age where leaders didn't necessarily have extensive educational background for their respective positions both burl and kathy were self taught mckay said they didn't have callers degrees then ask what policies nevada city followed for human resources city manager mark knoller referred to a typewritten sheet of paper in a binder he said he didn't know how old it was or whether it was something the council had approved the document contains language giving the impression it could be a draft it's as formal as we did here miller said this is typical of any small organization as far as i know we have a policy in place miller said but he conceded the city needs to update its written policies the city manager typically is the city's top paid employee answering to the city's council for their operations as a city affairs and the performance of all other city employees in the case of work on spires consultant austin said certainly the buck stops at marc miller's desk but many city the city's human resource functions were performed by wilcox barns miller said i am not the human resource person miller said explaining that now city finance director katrina andy's handles personal matters and is did not join the city until last february the city has completed the task of writing job reviews for city workers as the council requested last summer miller said last week city council members would have to approve the job descriptions he had council members plan to review miller's performance later this month after giving him a review and a vote of confidence in september along with a five percent rate boosting is pretty eighty three thousand four hundred seventy five dollars a year miller has been in a position for five years miller's review is thousand for his part time job plus about ten thousand for pay for office expenses as much as the work he can get for the city is done in his private office despite the challenges ahead council members are glad to be making progress it took thirty years to get iran has agreed to answer questions about his past nuclear activities within a month as part of an agreement with the international atomic energy agency the timetable was announced after the chief moment but by r wrapped up a two day visit to tehran on the campaign trail senator hillary clinton is continuing to refuse to describe her two thousand and two iraq war vote as a mistake in an interview with meet the press with tim russert clinton claimed that the two thousand two vote was not actually a vote for war she said it is absolutely unfair to say that the vote as chair go who is one of the architects of the resolution has said was a vote for war it was a vote to use of threat of force against saddam hussein who never did anything without being made to do so tim russert responded the title of the act was the authorization for use of military force against iraq resolution clinton said she back to bill after bush administration t they intended to put inspectors back in iraq and permit them to finish their job meanwhile supporters of hillary clinton are being accused of trying to disenfranchise some democratic voters in nevada ahead of the state's caucus on saturdays process the suit was filed just days after that influential nevada colaneri workers union endorsed barack obama teachers union has not endorsed a candidate but their unions deputy executive director debbie cahill is a member of the clinton that women's leadership council in other campaign news democratic presidential contender dennis kucinich is considering taking legal action after n b c news rescinded an invitation for him to participate in tuesday's presidential the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by four british men who were held at the u s military prison at guantanamo bay the four men had sued to former defense secretary donald rumsfeld and other top military officers for ordering torture and it religious abuse the judges effectively ruled that the detainees are not persons at all for the purpose of a u s law court ruling read in part because the plaintiffs are aliens and were located outside sovan united states territory at the time of their alleged crime clean rose they do not fall with the in the definition of person the ruling was issued on friday just as thousands of human rights activists were gathering around the world to protest the sixth anniversary of the opening of guantanamo in washington the least eighty activists were arrested outside the supreme court during a demonstration calling for the shutdown of the military prison where over eight hundred men and boys have been held without charges protesters marched in washington dressed like guantanamo prisoners worn orange jumpsuits and from the standpoint of how it reflects on us it's been pretty damaging spy chief mike mcconnell admits waterboarding is torture mike mcconnell has knowledge that the interrogation practices known as waterboarding could be described as torture he told the new york mag nor new yorker magazine whether it's torture by anybody else definition for me it would be torture waterboarding involves point water over subjects who are bound gagged announced that lieutenant colonel steven jordan will only face an administrative reprimand jordan oversaw the obvious interrogation center in iraq from september to december september through december two thousand and three until last week stephen jordan was the only officer a civilian leader to have been held criminally responsible for the abuses at abu ghraib and the new york times as revealed at least one hundred twenty one veterans of the war in iraq and afghanistan have been charged with committ murder after they returned home from duty time said the number indicated nearly ninety percent increase of almost i didn't valving active duty military personnel and new veterans sense to two thousand and one and vision of afghanistan dime said about one third of the victims were spouses girlfriends children or other relatives times reported that while many of the veterans showed signs of combat trauma they were often not about waited for or diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder until after the  and iraqi lawmakers have passed legislation that could potentially allow some former members of the saddam hussein bath party to return to work in government jobs but some officials say the law could actually exclude more former battis then it lets back in could also be a bar in the sunni tied to the bass party from obtaining a high level political position two thousand and three the u s backed coalition provisional authority removed all basses from the iraqi government in a move that helped fuel the sunni insurgency and that's it for world news today some more local breaking local news and an expected announcement lieutenant richard kimball was named today to replace the retired under served john turner as second in command for the nevada county sheriff's department which he does very energetic bright and good with people share of keith's royal said tuesday he intends to stay with the organization for years the new understeer joined the department in two thousand and two and quickly rose through the ranks royal said ending up as executive lieutenant at the wayne brown correctional facility he's had a career in law enforcement and a real estate in the bay area and second now before coming here campbell will be sworn in february fourth in a formal ceremony where a number of other promotions will be announced traina recently resigned after thirty one years in the department he officially retired in december two thousand and six but continued to earn his pay about eighty seven hundred per month during two thousand drawing retirement benefits as royal looked for his replacement and nevada city voters will select their next state clerk next city clerk when they had to the polls in june starting a new now vacated clerks position council numbers you know this really unanimously agreed on monday night i don't think we have to spend a lot of time here tonight said could drown in suggesting voters chairman who feels more than two years remaining and of a kid position the meeting lasted less than half an hour got the book on spies who has been the city clerk for twenty years resigned thursday three days after she and city leaders announced a two hundred seventy five thousand dollars settlement in her wrongful termination lawsuit against the city on monday council members had two choices to fill woolcock sponsor position is there a point someone who was a nevada city resident or and registered voter to fill the remaining two years or set an election allowing the mayor to pick a fellow council member  president is elected and the results are certified mayor harris didn't say monday which council member she would asked to fill in on an interim basis you have to let people know what they are in for said resident harry stewart question the coun make changes including making the position more voluntary instead of full time council members also agreed with stewart to view the position as more of a voluntary role this is a voluntary contribution you make to your community harris  city has paid to clear a one hundred dollar a month stiffened to fulfill the job council members agreed to make the next city fullfil next caller fulfill any only the minimum statutory requirements under state law including a minimum amount of compensation compensation is your card under the statute city attorney