INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. — In what ended up being a civil and non-confrontational event, a soft-spoken and determined Aaron Katz defended his lawsuit against the Incline Village General Improvement District and his vocal criticism of its management during a two-hour Q-and-A Fireside Chat last Thursday at Sierra Nevada College.

“The last thing I wanted to do was come here and create controversy,” Katz told the crowd of more than 130 on hand for the chat hosted by Incline resident Andy Whyman.

After moving to Incline Village in 2006, Katz said he eventually became concerned with the way IVGID was being managed. He said he further became suspicious of alleged wrongdoing when he began asking questions of the district and saw “resistance.”

“Any time you get resistance when you're asking questions, you know you're digging into an area that somebody doesn't want to be made public, and there were a lot of areas like that,” he said.

Many of the community questions sought further explanation from Katz about his motivations, and a few alluded to his somewhat checkered past, which includes numerous lawsuits against public entities and records of being suspended from the California Bar Association.

Katz defended those questions by saying his current suit is not asking for monetary reward — other than reimbursement of his recreation fee — and that his suspensions came from a 1983 criminal perjury conviction that stemmed from an incident a year earlier in which, according to court documents, Katz had illegally avoided California vehicle taxes and fees by having a Mercedes registered in Oregon.

“We all have skeletons in our closet, and I have a skeleton in my closet. I had a problem with the law over 30 years ago, and it ... resulted in a criminal prosecution. And I was convicted of it, and I'm sorry ... that happened,” Katz said. “I didn't think I did anything wrong there. But I accept it. It was over 30 years ago, I was a lot younger, I didn't know many of the things I know now ... but what relevance does that have to do with IVGID and today?”

Katz spent much of the Q-and-A reiterating his frustrations over various IVGID expenses he feels are illegal, many of which are detailed in the 51-page lawsuit he filed against the district in August 2001.

After the meeting, Incline resident Bryan Pavone — who was among about 10 people wearing orange T-shirts that declare Incline Village's problem to “be Katz, not bears” — said he felt not much was accomplished.

“It just basically sounded like more of the same. I don't understand why they're doing this. I don't know what, if anything, was accomplished,” he said. “(Katz) is someone who's gone about his mission in all the wrong ways. He has to ask himself — is what he wants to change what the public wants?”