Office expansion at the Legislature building

Jennifer Coleman

Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999 | 9:25 a.m.

CARSON CITY - With the start of the 1999 session nearing, the Legislative Building is humming with activity - or maybe that's the whine of a skill saw.

Only two years after a $19 million remodel of the Legislative Building was completed, workers are expanding leadership offices for the Assembly and the Senate at a cost of $100,000.

The major expansion completed during the 1997 session included a 4-story addition to the original Legislative Building. That added 94,000 square feet, doubling the size of the building.

But the offices of the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader didn't undergo any extensive changes at that point.

"During the construction, this was one of the areas we didn't touch," says Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. "But we think the speaker should have an office as nice as the chair of Government Affairs."

Legislators who chair the major committees, such as Government Affairs, Finance and Education, moved into suites measuring at least 390 square feet during the 1997 session.

Carpenters now are removing a conference room that divided the offices of Assembly Speaker Joe Dini, D-Yerington, and Majority Floor Leader Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, adding 150 square feet to Perkins' space and 200 square feet to Dini's office.

Office space for Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Senate president pro tem Lawrence Jacobsen, R-Minden, has also been increased.

Prior to construction, both Dini and Raggio had offices that measured 304 square feet. Both were increased by 66 percent and are now over 500 square feet.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, moved into a 488-square-foot office in 1997.

The cost of the latest remodeling, approximately $80,000 for construction and $20,000 for new carpet, comes out of money budgeted for the cost of the 1999 session, Malkiewich said.

In the meantime, furniture is being stored in the hallways and empty rooms until the sawhorses and power tools are removed.

"One of our favorite games is to make sure we have things torn up and all over the hallways up to the last Friday before the session," Malkiewich joked.

The Assembly leadership offices will be finished by Monday evening, just in time for Gov. Kenny Guinn to give his "State of the State" address in the nearby Assembly chambers. By Feb. 1, all the work will be done.

The latest project should be the last construction seen until after 2001, Malkiewich said.

"Every session since 1971 has seen some remodeling. At the end of each session, we say there isn't any need to change, but we always have something to do," Malkiewich said. "But this should hold us for a while."

The leadership office expansion isn't the only activity going on in the Legislative Building. Among the sawdust and construction crews, packs of lobbyists roam the halls, attending orientation meetings and waiting in line for photo identification badges.

They, like everyone else except elected officials, are required to wear photo badges when in the building. More than 800 badges will be issued by Feb. 1.

Along with the big increase in attaches, lobbyists and reporters, the lawmakers' police force will double to 24 during the session. Two civilian staffers also are being hired.

"Our assignment is to make sure the legislators and employees in the building have a safe working environment," said Lt. Wayne Hurte.

The new employees spend two weeks training for bomb scares, emergency evacuations, first aid and "anything else that could happen," Hurte said. They'll also shuttle lawmakers to and from the Reno airport, and walk employees on late-night shifts to their cars.