Mayor’s nanny’s complaint dismissed

Denise Cardinal

Friday, Sept. 19, 1997 | 1:29 a.m.

A complaint filed yesterday by the nanny for Las Vegas Mayor Jan Laverty Jones with the Nevada Labor Commission was dismissed this morning.

In her complaint, the nanny, Kathy Taylor, had charged that Jones wasn't paying her the amount she had originally agreed to.

Jones, however, said that the complaint was the last straw in a long line of questionable practices the nanny had used. Jones fired Taylor on Thursday.

In February, Jones said, Taylor, who is from Australia, asked for a job and asked for Jones to write a letter showing she would employ Taylor. At that time, the salary was agreed at $500 a week.

"Then she didn't get here until July," said Jones, who then renegotiated the salary to $1,500 a month. "In the first month, she took three weeks off. I still paid her, but she took three weeks off."

Then, Jones said, in September Taylor asked for $2000 a month. Jones agreed, adding that the change in salary would not be retroactive.

"I wrote her out a blank check, intending it to be for $500 for that week," said Jones, adding that she was hurrying to an appointment at the time.

Later in the day, Jones said, she received a call from her bank asking if she wrote a check for $1,500 to Kathy Taylor.

"I told them not to cash it," she said.

Then, Jones said, Taylor took off with the mayor's car and cellular phone for three days, filed a complaint with the labor commission and called local media outlets to give it press.

"The real lesson here," the mayor said, "is that you shouldn't try to do something for someone. I feel like this is a shakedown. I don't like being taken that way."

Jones said she pays for the nanny's Social Security, matches her FICA payment and also pays for her worker's compensation. She has since given Taylor a severence check for $2,000 and asked her to leave. The position hasn't been filled yet.