Wednesday, April 15, 1998 | 10:09 a.m.
The new computers - which will be leased for $70 a month - will replace $6,000 models that legislators used only during the 1997 session. Those computers - Panasonic CF-41 models - had been purchased late in 1996 with the stipulation they'd be used through the 1999 Legislature.
"Two years ago we had the most modern equipment," said Assemblyman Jack Close, R-Las Vegas. "Things have changed."
During a hearing Tuesday of the Legislature's Subcommittee on Computer Applications, staff members said the computers are too slow and can't run much of the software legislators now need. The old computers will be given or sold to state agencies.
"The value of these machines after two years is close to zero," said Ron Nichols, manager of Information Systems for the Legislature.
A survey Nichols completed last month found that just 31 of the 63 legislators turned on their computers only once during a seven-week period. Only 10 lawmakers used their computers at least once a day.
And 25 legislators have asked him to copy onto regular paper their e-mail messages and then mail the copies to them. By the time they receive the e-mail messages, some are 10 days old.
Despite the survey results, Close said about 80 percent of the lawmakers used the laptop models during the 1997 session.
By leasing computers, Close added the legislators can save because they won't have to pay lease fees if they don't use them.
He said it could cost as little as $280 to lease a computer if a legislators turns it in after the close of a four-month session in 1999.
"If legislators don't want a computer, then no one is going to force them to have one," said Close, chairman of the committee.
The idea to acquire new computers originated with Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas. He wasn't present when the subcommittee voted unanimously to lease new computers.
Close said part of the reason some legislators didn't use their laptop computers was they preferred to use their own computers. More than half of the legislators have home computers, according to a survey by Nichols.
Money for leasing the new computers will come from funds set aside to operate the 1999 Legislature.
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