Democrats question value of Washington office

Thursday, March 18, 1999 | 11:11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Assembly Democrats question the effectiveness of the state's office in Washington, D.C., and the decision by Gov. Kenny Guinn to spend more than $500,000 during the next two years to keep it open.

But Victoria Soberinsky, deputy chief of staff for Guinn, told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee the office will focus on the national issues of gaming and keeping nuclear waste out of Nevada.

"It is not time to be myopic," Soberinsky said. "It's time to be proactive."

Guinn already has decided not to renew the contract of Leo Penne, who has headed the staff of two full-time workers and one part-timer since the office opened in 1986. Soberinsky said the Guinn staff is looking for a replacement for Penne, and the staff would be lowered to two people.

Committee Chairman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblyman David Goldwater, D-Las Vegas, led the criticism. Arberry said the "biggest outcry" is over the fact that there is no way to measure the effectiveness of the office.

"We need performance indicators," Arberry told Soberinsky. "We've been trying to justify what they do."

The committee, he said, has sought the same thing in the past and has never received the information to evaluate the effectiveness of the office.

Goldwater said "a ton of money" is being spent by other governments in Nevada for lobbyists in Washington and he wondered if this money might be better spent in other places.

The budget is financed by the Nevada Transportation Department, the Economic Development Commission and the Tourism Commission. Goldwater said testimony from the Economic Development Commission indicates the office is not much of a benefit.

Goldwater questioned the Washington office spending $5,200 a year on telephones, $6,000 on travel, $1,000 on local transportation and $6,000 on subscriptions.

"Most of our (state) agencies don't spend money in this way," he said.

Soberinsky said the office does considerable telephoning to Nevada and that the staff traveled with the National Governors Association when then-Gov. Bob Miller was chairman. She said the subscriptions include money for research papers and other publications to keep abreast of current events.

Arberry gave Soberinsky until next week to submit a list of performance indicators for the office so it can be evaluated. He said the budget would not be approved until those standards are submitted.

Penne declined comment on the issue of performance indicators until he has a chance to review the testimony. Asked about the termination of his contract as of June 30, Penne said the governor decided that the office "needed to take a different orientation."

"We mutually decided, that in view of my interests and strengths, somebody else would be a better alternative," Penne said.

"While we have done work on subjects like nuclear waste and Indian gaming, my principal interest has been in economic development," he said.

The office was set up for a support role, Penne said, and Guinn wants a "more legislative lobbying mission than it has been."