Parole Board member’s past prompts concern for Guinn

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2000 | 10:40 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Tami Bass, a member of the state Parole Board, has a conviction for welfare cheating and has had her driver's license suspended three times in Nevada, state and local public records reveal.

Bass, appointed by Gov. Kenny Guinn in August 1999, met Monday with the governor's legal counsel, Keith Munro. After the session, Bass said she intended to stay on the Parole Board.

The records also show she was reimbursed at least once by the state for using a private car during the period of her most recent license suspension.

Guinn said Monday he did not know about the misdemeanor welfare fraud conviction when he appointed her to the $63,000-a-year job. He said he would have given it further study in making the appointment.

At the time, Guinn said, he knew Bass most of her life and that she had extensive legal experience and compassion to qualify her for the Parole Board.

She was a family support specialist with the Clark County district attorney's office before taking the state position.

At the time, there was a lack of extensive checks on the background of those appointed to state positions.

Bass' troubles began in 1990 while attending the University of San Diego. She was arrested on felony charges of welfare fraud, food stamp fraud and perjury. She pleaded guilty to a reduced misdemeanor of receiving assistance by fraud.

Bass was placed on three years' probation and spent one day in jail and ordered to make restitution, according to court records.

Bass said she was receiving a financial aid package at the school and did not know she had to report that as income. She said she intended to fight the charge, but she said she pleaded guilty to the reduced charge because final examinations were coming up and she wanted to concentrate on them.

Driving records in the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety show she was cited in June 1992 for driving without due care and failing to decrease speed. Her license was suspended in December 1992 for failure to appear on a citation and was reinstated in December 1993.

In November 1993, the records show, she was cited for speeding. Her license was suspended in February 1994 for failure to appear, and it was reinstated in October 1994.

In March 1999 Bass was cited for disregarding a traffic light. Her license was suspended in September 1999, a month after she was appointed to the Parole Board. It was reinstated in April 2000.

Bass disputes the three suspensions. She said there were only two suspensions and a mix-up on the sentence to do community service.

"There was never a failure to appear. I went to court and fought it and I lost," she said.

"I was under the impression I would do community service. There was a huge miscommunication. I should have been attentive to resolving it but I wasn't. Once I applied for community service, I never did as much following up as I should have," Bass said.

"I never thought it would end in suspension. But I did take care of it," she said.

She denies ever driving a state vehicle while her license was suspended from September 1999 to April this year.

"I never drove any state cars. The men drive in my office. They are very sensitive to that," she said.

She said she has "never signed a document for a state car, at all, at all."

"Where you got that from is totally incorrect."

Records show that she signed for a state vehicle at least six times between September 1999 and April 2000, but there is nothing in the records that show whether she drove the car.

Bass, however, was reimbursed $23 for use of a personal car for a trip from Las Vegas to Indian Springs for parole hearings on Jan. 13, 2000. And she used a private car on Dec. 13, 1999, to go to Pioche and Ely for hearings. There is no record of reimbursement for mileage for the private car on the Pioche-Ely trip.

Guinn said those trips are being reviewed by his office, and the attorney general's office has been asked to consider whether state regulations might have been violated.

The governor said when he took office in January 1999 there were no procedures for checking backgrounds of those who wanted appointments. He said his administration started the inquiries when there were questions about a member named to the state Wildlife Commission.

The appointment of Bass came before the investigation procedure was started, he said.

"There was a gap in there," Guinn said.