Las Vegas city attorney prepares to exit stage, with 1 finale left

Las Vegas City Attorney Brad Jerbic is leaving the city July 1, trading in the familiarity of the place where he held his first job as a teenager for the freshness of the private sector.

When Jerbic, 62, arrived at City Hall to assume the role of the city’s top prosecutor in 1992, he did so because the opportunity arose to do something different than prosecuting federal and county courtroom trials, he said. And now he finds himself once again lured by an offer to wade into a new environment, an increasingly rare opportunity for someone his age.

From his start as a teen selling dog and cat licenses door to door, Jerbic has seen a career arc that includes working on cases for an indicted federal judge, establishing a deep-rooted relationship with mayors Oscar and Carolyn Goodman and resisting the temptation to act as an extra city council member.

He’s survived a burst appendix, divided city councils, a handful of city managers and dozens of city council members.

“Doing one thing over and over again — not the way I live,” Jerbic said.

Standing on a corner of Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard on Friday — in black sunglasses, a gray shirt with rolled-up sleeves and trademark ponytail — Jerbic tells of the one thing he will not leave behind: Project Enchilada, a beautification effort that promises to restore downtown neighborhood blocks to their original luster.

It was his idea from the early 2000s that sat on the shelf until it was resurrected following the Oct. 1, 2017, mass shooting, where Jerbic lost one of his closest friends.

“And that has been almost like therapy for me,” he said. “Instead of going to a psychiatrist, I go on Fremont Street and watch them plant trees.”

Rise to City Hall

Jerbic was born in the Bay Area and moved to Las Vegas as a toddler, growing up in a house near Charleston and Decatur boulevards, “which was the end of town back then.” At 16, he accepted his first gig with the city canvassing neighborhoods to sell dog licenses and returned between his freshman and sophomore years of college to supervise a group of younger kids doing the same.

By then, the operation had expanded to felines: “So we nicknamed ourselves the Pup and Pussy Posse, and we went door to door selling tags for dogs and cats.”

He worked for two summers during law school to line up a job as a federal law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Harry Claiborne, but “here’s where it gets interesting” — Claiborne was indicted and convicted for falsifying his income tax returns.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave him permission to hire Jerbic anyway because Claiborne still had a caseload despite being on a leave of absence because of his legal troubles, Jerbic said, and he worked in the federal court for two years.

From there, Jerbic served stints as a prosecutor in the Clark County district attorney and U.S. attorney’s offices before the City Hall job opened up when late former City Attorney Roy Woofter retired.

“Coming back to the city was like coming back home,” Jerbic said.

But his first few months were personally fraught: During a big-money civil rights case, his father passed away after battling Lou Gehrig’s disease and Jerbic’s appendix burst the morning of closing arguments.

Resisting policy battles

Jerbic said he’s attracted to government from an operational standpoint, when it works behind the scenes and citizens see only the benefits.

But that hasn’t always been the case: Controversial decisions most recently to ban homeless camps in downtown Las Vegas when shelter beds are available and to initially decline to prosecute businesses running afoul of Gov. Steve Sisolak’s shutdown edict have drawn public scrutiny.

Jerbic stressed that his job is to vet the legality of proposed laws, and to enforce local ordinances, not to make policy.

“Today I am not the eighth member of the city council, and I tell everybody on our staff: We don’t do policy. We do law,” he said. “And it’s so tempting. You’re sitting in a room and people are talking about policy, and ‘Oh boy, I want to wade in with an opinion.’ That is the road to hell. That is where you don’t want to be.”

It is one of few pieces of unsolicited advice he says he will offer his successor, when that person is eventually named. Only if asked, he said, will he give any more suggestions.

“Whoever gets it needs to have the freedom to do it their way,” he added.

Small world

Jerbic’s career has spanned several city executives and city lawmakers, including three mayors: Jan Jones Blackhurst, Oscar Goodman and now Carolyn Goodman.

His relationship with the Goodman family dates back nearly 50 years. Oscar Goodman, who was a criminal defense attorney, represented the father of Jerbic’s high school friend when the father was indicted. Goodman also served as counsel for Claiborne. And when Jerbic was in the DA’s office, their paths would cross, although they never faced off in a courtroom.

“And so when we got Oscar, we got Carolyn (as mayors), it’s just kind of, it’s one of those little pieces that just kind of makes the whole story so interesting,” Jerbic said. “Everybody in this town is connected by one degree of separation.”

Jerbic credited the Goodmans’ back-to-back service for continuity within city leadership, adding they both were passionate about the city, “which I totally can relate to.”

But he also described council division that has come and gone over the past 28 years.

“And right now we’re back in that, in that place where you’ve got almost a split of people thinking on this side one way and this side the other way,” he said. “And I’ve seen that. It happens. It happens in government all the time.”

The next city attorney cannot be lured into political fights, he said, and must not accept the job unless they are prepared to say ‘no’ when necessary.

The whole enchilada

For Jerbic, who will be practicing in the municipal law arena for a still-unnamed national firm with a “huge” Las Vegas office, his attention now turns squarely to Project Enchilada.

The plan for the public-private partnership is to renovate 12 square miles of downtown from Interstate 15 to Eastern Avenue and U.S. Highway 95 to Charleston Boulevard, complete with Shumard oak trees, 1929 street lights, wider sidewalks and restored motel signs.

“So when you stand on Fremont, you’re just gonna see a ribbon of active neon lights,” he said.

It’s an unusual project to be spearheaded by a city attorney, and Jerbic credits City Manager Scott Adams and others who gave him the green light to pursue it. He will continue to work on the restoration, now in the first phase and focused on Fremont Street, even after his departure.

“I’m not going to make a dime continuing with this project,” he said during a small tour Friday. “But I don’t want to lose this project either.”

Contact Shea Johnson at sjohnson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter.