The city of North Las Vegas has released a key piece of evidence that council members used to oust embattled city Manager Qiong Liu over accusations that she tried to give herself a retroactive $25,000 pay raise last month.

A 7-page investigative report, which was undertaken by the law firm of Fisher Phillips and released to The Nevada Independent following a public records request, details a timeline of events and notes from interviews with the city’s Human Resources Director Cass Palmer and Liu conducted throughout the month of January, as well as multiple emails, memorandums and related handwritten notes.

Scott Mahoney, an attorney with the firm, wrote that the report was prepared on direction of city Attorney Micaela Moore specifically over the issue of Liu’s attempt to process a retroactive pay raise related to a council-approved 2016 salary increase. Council members voted 4-1 to move to terminate Liu, largely over the retroactive pay issue, during a council meeting last month.

Although the report doesn’t express an opinion as to whether Liu’s conduct was sufficient grounds for termination, it raised questions over Liu’s conduct in moving to process the pay raise despite there being “no evidence” council members approved a retroactive salary increase when they raised her salary in 2016.

“Even if one were to accept Liu’s claim that she did not generally pay attention to what was being direct deposited by the City into her account, a normal reasonable person would have taken steps to confirm the receipt of a sum of this amount and/or noticed that the amount in their account was considerably larger than usual,” the report stated. “If the money was not received as expected, a normal reasonable person would have also made timely inquiries or complaints about the lack of receipt.”

Liu fired assistant city Manager Ryann Juden, a close ally of Mayor John Lee, on Jan. 9 in an explosive memo, but rescinded the firing a day later and look an immediate leave of absence. Juden was appointed interim city manager nearly a week later in a unanimous vote.

Liu, Lee and city HR Director Cass Palmer all signed a handwritten agreement outlining terms of her departure from the city, including a 6-month pause in terminating city directors without cause. But that agreement, and a separate separation agreement, were rejected by the city after officials said that Liu attempted to go around the council and process a $25,000 pay increase she believed she was owed between November 2015 and September 2016.

The report also said that a Jan. 4 memo drafted, but never sent, by Liu explaining the retroactive pay increase to members of the council could have been sent any time the following week “if she wanted to.”

In the interview, Palmer said he had an “increasingly unpleasant” conversation with Liu on Jan. 4 over the retroactive pay issue, and said he believed any pay increase would need to be approved by City Council members.

“While Liu never specifically stated that she would fire Palmer if he failed to follow her instructions, she was becoming aggressive in tone by this point, and Palmer felt he would be fired if he did not comply,” the report stated.

An addendum to the report dated Feb. 28 also noted that city Chief Financial Officer Bill Adair had never been advised of an arrangement to process Liu’s request to retroactively raise her salary, and that it wasn’t reflected in the city’s 2018 budget planning process.

The addendum also noted that Liu had done a factory reset on her city-provided iPhone before returning it to the city, with Mahoney stating that the city “may wish to review whether wiping any information on the phone which was a matter of public record violated any City policies or relevant statutes or other provisions.”

Liu appealed the city’s decision to move to terminate her, and requested a public hearing to contest the decision during the city council meeting on March 7. Liu’s attorney did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Fisher Phillips investigation NLV by Riley Snyder on Scribd