Library board taking a look at hiring lobbyist firm

Friday, Jan. 15, 1999 | 11:15 a.m.

The Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Board of Directors voted Thursday to begin negotiations with R&R Advertising to serve as the district's paid lobbyist.

Lobbyists who volunteered their time occasionally have represented the district in the past, but board member Barbara Robinson, chairwoman of the library's Legislative Committee, said paying for the service will give the district more effective representation.

"You can't hold someone accountable if you don't pay them," Robinson said. "You get what you pay for."

The board gave Executive Director Daniel Walters the go-ahead to begin negotiating with R&R. He said he believes it should not cost the district more than $25,000.

Walters said R&R agreed not to bill the district for travel and entertainment, two of the biggest expenses of lobbyists, nor will the company bill at an hourly rate.

Walters said he will meet with R&R representatives and develop a "range of services and fees."

R&R is the largest advertising agency in the state and has an extensive lobbying division.

The library board had to decide between R&R and the two-man firm of Danny Lee, who was chairman of the library board from 1983 to 1991, and John Vergiels, who spent 20 years in the state Legislature from 1972 to 1992.

The board maintains it needs a paid lobbyist to protect the district's interest in a period of tightening budgets.

One of the responsibilities of the lobbyist will be to watch for unexpected legislation that might impact the district.

The lobbyist also will push a legislative agenda adopted by the board that includes attempting to get a law passed that changes the method for addressing boundary disputes for all library districts.

The district also wants the state to provide funding for any program mandated by the Legislature and it wants the district to be represented on the Clark County Debt Management Commission.

In other business, the board agreed to use Deloitte & Touche as its auditing firm. The library district has an annual budget of more than $25 million.

Deloitte & Touche, the board decided, will also probably be called upon to provide accounting services for two or three months after the resignation of Controller Lew Rogers takes effect Feb. 26. The board said it will take that long to recruit a replacement for Rogers.

Also, Walters said he is going to research the cost of photocopying at the libraries, which is now 20 cents a page.

He said there is a direct correlation between copying costs and the mutilation of magazines and other printed material. Rather than paying to copy a page, he said, people sometimes rip the page out of a book or magazine.