Dive Brief:

• Last May, North Las Vegas outsourced its human resources department, letting go both of its two full-time HR staff. Those employees are fighting back, reports the Las Vegas Journal-Review.
• Tammy Bonner and Bachera Washington recently filed a complaint alleging retaliation with the Employee Management Relations Board, a government entity that handles disagreements between employers and employees, reports the Journal-Review.
• The suit says the move to privatize HR as a budget-cutting measure was untrue, with the real reason for doing it being that the HR employees "stood up to the mayor."

Dive Insight:

The complaint argues Mayor John Lee abused his office to hire friends and acquaintances who weren't qualified for city jobs.

When it became known that Bonner and Washington were preparing to file an ethics complaint against the mayor, soon thereafter City Manager Qiong Liu announced the idea of outsourcing the HR department. Liu said the City of Reno had done the same, but it turned out to be untrue, as Reno had not outsourced its entire HR department.

The complaint asks that Bonner and Washington be given their jobs back, along with back pay and attorney's fees. Bonner has been with the city 13 years, Washington, 22.