Will the real Brent Javanovich please stand up?
Last month, Carson Now posted two different opinion pieces by Brent Javanovich that leveled several serious charges at Carson City government officials.
The pieces drew a lot of attention, including from Supervisor Jim Shirk, who urged his Facebook fans to read them and bring up the issues at the town meeting scheduled for this evening.
But it now seems that Brent Javanovich doesn't exist.
City officials contacted Carson Now to find a way to get in touch with Javanovich, hoping to arrange a meeting with the city manager and staff to address his concerns. But all messages we sent to the email he provided have gone unanswered.
In addition, searches of city records failed to turn up anyone with the name Brent Javanovich. It appears Javanovich has a peculiar interest in Carson City government affairs for someone who apparently doesn't own property here, and doesn't pay any bills to the city.
Now, it's still possible that Mr. Javanovich may yet reveal himself to be a real person. But that prospect is fading by the minute.
Carson Now was created to provide a forum to discuss important issues affecting Carson City. Due to past abuses, we long ago began requiring real names be attached to submitted articles and comments. After all, if anyone has an opinion important enough to post for everyone to read, he or she should be willing to put their name on it.
We do make allowances for those people who are acting as whistleblowers and can show a well-founded fear of retaliation if their name is revealed. But simply taking pot shots at other people while hiding behind a fake name is way out of bounds.
So who is Brent Javanovich? If, as we suspect, this is a pseudonym, who is the person behind this? If the charges leveled at the city are legitimate, why are you hiding? Or, was this just a political hit job that someone was hoping to get away with and not leave any fingerprints?
We think the issues raised by Mr. Javanovich should be discussed in public. Perhaps he will surprise everyone and make an appearance at the town hall meeting tonight. Perhaps someone will ask for the real Brent Javanovich to stand up.
And then maybe we can look around the room to see who hides his or her eyes, knowing there is no Brent Javanovich.