Nevadans to attend legislative conference

Tuesday, July 9, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The lawmakers, along with 20 Legislative Counsel Bureau staffers, plan to attend the National Conference of State Legislatures annual session that starts July 27.

The total expense, part of the LCB budget, is about $40,000. LCB Director Lorne Malkiewich said a key goal is to learn how the meeting is put on in preparation for 1998, when Nevada hosts the yearly affair in Las Vegas.

"St. Louis in July -- we're not going there for the weather," he said. "This is a serious training session."

Legislators say the meeting provides a chance to learn from thousands of other states' lawmakers on how they handle key issues such as welfare reform and criminal justice.

"With term limits coming, it's much harder to get people up to speed on the issues," said Assembly Co-Speaker Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville. "It's getting more and more critical to exchange ideas. Later, we can call people up and network on issues."

Hettrick sees the annual meeting as a sort of continuing education for lawmakers who, especially in Nevada's part-time citizen legislature, have no other opportunities for learning.

Jack Close, a first-term assemblyman from Las Vegas, will attend, but recognizing public skepticism over such affairs, he is paying his and his wife's registration fees, totaling $385.

"A lot of times people get upset that we do this," Close said. "But this is one of the few professions where people get upset at people wanting to learn the jobs. I'm saying I'm willing to pay part of it. I'm sharing the responsibility."

Hettrick said the last time the conference met in Nevada, in Reno in 1988, the gathering brought millions of dollars into the local economy. He expects the same in Las Vegas two years from now.

Malkiewich estimates that $6 million to $7 million will be spent to put on the 1998 meeting, but the affair will pump $20 million into the Las Vegas and state economies.