This is Reno profiled candidates for select local races in the 2018 mid-term elections. Student political writer Don Dike-Anukam attended a number of political events in recent months to track down candidates, learn about issues, and to see what those in the races had to say about topics being faced by the Reno community. While this election remains contentious around the country, at the local level many Reno-area candidates tended to focus more on issues and less on mudslinging. Here are the two candidates for Reno City Attorney: John Kadlic running against incumbent Karl Hall.
By Don Dike-Anukam
John Kadlic
Reno attorney John Kadlic is running for Reno City Attorney. He’s coming out of retirement after previously serving in the position for eight years.
Kadlic was raised in upstate New York and has “committed the majority of his legal career to supporting the public,” as his website indicates. His parents immigrated from then Czechoslovakia, wanting more opportunity for their children. John was the first in his family to graduate high school and the first to graduate college. He attended Memphis State, and was there when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. From Memphis he went to law school in North Dakota.
After law school, John came out to Nevada with his brother, moving from Las Vegas to Carson City. He finally settled in Reno in 1978 when he got a job with the City Attorney’s office. He’s been in Reno ever since. Kadlic was a judge in the justice court for three terms but lost an election after third term. In 2006, he decided to run for Reno City Attorney. He ran unopposed in 2010, and in 2014 he decided to retire at 67.
He found retirement life to be less fulfilling than he thought, involving a little too much leisure for him. Now he’s running again because he wants to go back and do something for the Reno community. Under his guidance, Kadlic notes the office ran well for eight years, and he’d like to provide similar results. He prided himself for working with both the mayor and council. For example, in 30 days they were tasked to complete review, bonding, and application for the triple-A baseball stadium project together. This project is what now houses the Reno Aces.
He’ll always remember the ballpark project as one of his crowning achievements, given the circumstances. He also fondly remembers his eight years as city attorney and winning 95-percent of the city’s cases.
If elected, Kadlic said he is confident he’d be able to work at the same level of success. He realizes that he is part of a team, providing legal advice, and staying away from city politics. That’s how he plans to earn his supporters’ vote.
“I don’t want my picture in the front page of the newspaper,” he stressed. Kadlic wants to make sure the city still gets the best legal advice possible, making sure to highlight any and all legal pitfalls, and to take legal positions and not political positions. He said he plans to continue to operate by anticipating potential problems and resolving them before they become ongoing issues.
He plans to win by running his campaign the same way he’s run it in the past — by passing out leaflets and handouts, hitting the pavement, and letting people know what the office is and what he plans to do.
When it comes to retirement, Kadlic’s only regret was not running for another four years. He looks at retirement and feels like he was still too active to stop working. Kadlic said he instead wants to “continue to contribute to the community” in the best way he knows how.
Information: https://www.kadlicforcityattorney.com/
Karl Hall
Kark Hall was raised in Carson City where his mother worked in real estate. He went to law school, and then worked with Pete Laxalt. He was hired and worked for 25 years for the District Attorney’s Office under former district attorney Mills Lane. In 2014 the opportunity to run for city attorney opened up and Hall jumped at the chance. He was victorious in that election.
What does the city attorney do?
The city attorney is in charge of two divisions: criminal and civil. The criminal side is in charge of prosecuting all misdemeanors that occur in Reno, including traffic tickets, DUIs, domestic battery charges, and similar issues. The civil side defends the City of Reno from all civil lawsuits.
What are your achievements?
When asked about his greatest accomplishments, Hall said that he looks at the city attorney’s office as a whole — his excellent staff, the strides they’ve made since the Great Recession, and making do with what they had. He also cites a doing the city-wide client survey on how the city was doing and asking its employees what can be improved.
Being a member of the Attorney General’s advisory board on domestic battery has allowed him to revise and change the standards on prosecuting such cases to be current on modern issues.
Why is he running?
When asked about why he’s running for re-election, Hall said he loves the job and he’s invested in the city. He feels he has a broad base of support in the community and wants to maintain the progress that he has made.
What should I vote for you?
When asked about why he should get your vote, Hall replied that he’s the best candidate for the job and he always tries to do the right thing for the city. He feels that his 25 years in trial work and legal work stands for itself as a reason to vote for him. He feels very confident that election day will give him a good return.
If elected to a second term, Hall wants to focus on mental health issues and trying to lower criminal recidivism in that community. On the civil side, he wants to address the Lemmon Valley flooding issue and the several heavy lawsuits the city is facing. He hopes to find resolutions to these cases wherever possible in favor of the city.
Information: https://karlhall4reno.com/
