Wednesday, June 9, 1999 | 11:06 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- The public may or may not have liked the results, but the 1999 Legislature and its staff proved it could do the same amount of work in less time.
There were 1,263 bills introduced this time, or 96 more than two years ago when the session ran 167 days.
Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Nevada Legislative Counsel Bureau, said Tuesday this session lawmakers and staff worked harder, but the taxpayers saved $2.6 million to $2.7 million because of the 120-day time limit.
Mark Stevens, fiscal analyst for the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, had only one day off -- Easter Sunday -- after the session opened in February until it closed May 31. And he wasn't alone in the limited time off. The fiscal staff worked 10-12 hours a day and 6-7 hours on Saturdays and Sundays to keep up with examining the $3.2 billion budget.
The bill for overtime for staff won't be known until later this month, but Malkiewich estimates it will be less than in 1997 because of the 47 fewer session days.
Malkiewich said, "They were stressed most in fiscal. They condensed the process into 120 days. They were busy all session." In contrast, he said there were "peaks and valleys" for bill drafters and research staff. The work increased as the deadlines approached for passing bills out of committee and from one house to another.
Then there was a slow period after the deadlines passed. "We need to level this off," he said.
In addition to the increase in bills drafted, the legal staff wrote 1,231 amendments, only 52 fewer than in 1997.
There are about 250 extra people hired for the Legislature. Most are gone. But some committee secretaries remain, finishing up minutes. Secretaries for the Senate Finance Committee and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, the two that carry the biggest workload, probably won't complete their work until late this month or early in July.
While more bills were introduced, fewer were passed. This time, lawmakers approved 628 compared to 691 in 1997. That breaks down to 5.2 bills passed every day this year compared to 4.1 two years ago.
"I suspect I'm biased, but I felt it went wonderful," said Malkiewich, referring to the first 120-day limited session. "We took 25 percent off and we hit all the deadlines."
And there wasn't the usual big rush at the end of the session. The Senate and Assembly didn't suspend the rules until the last week. This means the committee meetings don't have to be posted three days in advance. In the past, Malkiewich said, the suspension came earlier in the session. This time, public notice of meetings was maintained longer than in previous sessions.
This session, 160 legislative committee meetings were video conferenced to Las Vegas, compared to 145 two years ago. Yet the attendance in Las Vegas at these televised hearings dropped from 2,900 in 1997 to 2,400 this time.
Malkiewich said there were more "high profile issues" in 1997 than this time around.
Traditionally in prior sessions, there were scores of bills passed in the final days. This year, there were only a handful compared to prior years, he said.
Even though there was less time, Malkiewich said there was only one complaint from a citizen that he could not get to testify. He said the record showed, however, that the chairman held four hearings on the bill. But he conceded that testimony was limited in hearings that lasted three and four hours. And some citizens were cut off.
When the final costs are computed, Malkiewich estimates it will be "short of $13 million," compared to $15.5 million two years ago.
This session didn't take any three-day holidays. And some lawmakers, with heavy schedules, worked from 7:30 a.m. to past 8 p.m. several days a week.
By installing deadlines, the public was able to testify and get a chance to examine the bills once they got into the second house. In the past, a bill may have been pushed through in one day without any public participation, Malkiewich said.
"There were very few bills that got exemptions," he said.
And the work is just starting anew. There are interim legislative study committees that must be appointed. And there are other committees such as studying the feasibility of a four-year college in Henderson, the funding for the University and Community College System of Nevada and another commission to look at school violence.
These committees operate in the interim and will make recommendations to the 2001 session.
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