I had planned to write about economic development in Mesquite and will again soon. However, I feel compelled to write this article about Mr. Adam Leverenz and his ten year tirade about the city of Mesquite, our police officers, municipal court employees, city council members, and of course me. I, as an elected official expect criticism. The same criticism has been directed to the past three mayors, as well as councils.
Mr. Leverenz is not a resident of Mesquite and to the best of my knowledge has an Arizona driver’s license. He is not, nor has ever been employed here. So what is Mr. Leverenz doing and why is he showing up at city council meetings year after year?
About ten years ago, the police department began receiving numerous formal complaints about Mr. Leverenz for the following: Stalking of a Female, Harassment, Obscene, Threatening Phone Calls, Obstruction, Delaying, and Hindering an Investigation, TPO Violations, Trespassing and several lesser complaints. I have copies of all of these and their dispositions.
Mr. Leverenz is convinced that the office of the mayor, and or city council should right the imaginary wrongs he believes were committed against him and the violation of his constitutional rights. He believes he had documented evidence of all these wrong doings. I can assure you, our police and courts did nothing wrong in regards to Mr. Leverenz. He broke the law, not our police and courts. He was advised, long ago, to seek legal redress of these complaints. In fact, he complained to the Eighth Judicial District Court as well as the Nevada State Supreme Court. These courts do not have jurisdiction in his appeals. In fact, the Statute of Limitations has long since run out.
Mr. Leverenz has no respect for the office of mayor or city council as he refers to us by name only. It’s ok to do that, but you get my point. Mr. Leverenz refers to me directly as a liar and misquotes me whenever he can. Again as an elected official, he can do that, as we are fair game for it. He will probably do this because he can. I imagine he did this to the other city officials he has attempted to sway. It didn’t work in the past, and it won’t work now.
Recently I asked Mr. Leverenz to come in a see me so we could talk about his issues. Even though I cannot and will not do what he wants, I was willing to listen. He did not reply.
Mr. Leverenz, who seems to see himself as a legal expert, is now an expert on the Open Meeting Law. He is not. In the Public Comment of our council meetings, he does his best to get me to engage in back and forth discussion with him. The Statutes do not forbid it, but I don’t have to for a number of reasons. If you understand Mr. Leverenz, you would know why I limit him to three minutes with no response from me.
Mr. Leverenz is a very smart person. However, as a mental health professional, I can see what drives him in the same direction for these past ten years. I think he also knows.
I have great respect for our police and court system in Mesquite. It’s a shame Mr. Leverenz does not.
Mayor, all cities and towns have their chronic complainers who claim to have the law or God on their side. Loud mouth, inaccurate, self serving, bully, and the list goes on as how they can be described. It comes with the territory. Let them spew their venom and after a while with no attention they usually disappear. Too bad your city has one with multiple criminal history in his background. Ignore his rants, smile, and move on. It is the best thing for the city. Believe me, I have seen this time and time again so this is nothing new. Mesquite is a fine city and will always be thanks to the voters.
When I was employed by the huge city of San Diego, CA, we would call these kind of people “Gadflies”. Highly annoying with no purposeful agenda or solutions. Just buzzing around taking up valuable time and mental energy. They feed off their delusions. I wish a can of Raid would take care of it, but one can only ignore and limit a Gadfly’s behavior. Rest assured, no one else cares a bit about a Gadfly’s delusional agenda.
Great piece Mr. Mayor. You have done a wonderful job in avoiding confrontation from Mr. Leverenz. The arrest he continues to talk about was long before you took office, and even before all but I believe one current council member was elected. The bottom line is that he broke the law by repeatedly disobeying a restraining order. He was arrested, given free legal counsel and had his day in court.
He has publicly attacked everybody involved by name for over 10 years now. Including the arresting officers, the police chief and his successors, the judge who gave him an EXTREMELY fair judgement, and every mayor and city council member since it happened.
He continually refers to “proven acts of civil disobedience” by the police officers involved. The only problem with that is, that the only place they have been “proven” or even questioned is in his mind.
I have personally asked him myself why he continues this persecution. He said he will continue until all involved are brought to justice, the city of Mesquite makes a public apology to him and pay him for damages done to his camper when they were forced to enter it. It is unfortunate that such an intelligent man has mental health problems to the point that he has spent the last 10+ years pursuing this ridiculous witch hunt instead of doing something, anything, productive with his life.
The part that gets me is that he also continually questions how the mayor, city council, police and fire departments run our city. Especially questioning every new hire and every dime the city spends on anything. To the best of any of our knowledge, he does not have an actual residence here. He pays no taxes here. He does not vote here. I have NEVER once seem him spending any money here in a store, at a restaurant, a gas station, nowhere.
It is long past time for him to get over this incident and chalk it up to experience. It is time for him to move on with his life, preferably somewhere else. In the meantime, in this day and age of mentally ill people shooting at and killing people nearly every day, I respectfully request that the Mesquite Police Department keep an extremely close eye on him. Especially at our city council meetings.
Bravo Mr. Mayor!
Even though I have been financially destroyed by the City of Mesquite I have respect for our Mayor. This guy was out of line at the council meeting.