Some city employees wind up with a five-day weekend

Diana Sahagun

Monday, July 3, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

Trying to reach your city officials this week?

Good luck.

Tuesday's mid-week holiday has thrown a monkey wrench into city schedules as some employees take the liberty of redeeming vacation time, which for some could mean three-, four-, even five-day weekends.

Several North Las Vegas and Henderson officials cashed in their vacation time today, will join the Fourth of July spectators for the holiday Tuesday, and they normally don't work Fridays. Upon returning Wednesday, they will have enjoyed a five-day weekend.

A call to North Las Vegas City Hall this morning revealed that the fire chief and the assistant fire chief weren't working today and were off until Wednesday. Also absent was the assistant city manager, public works director, and the finance director. North Las Vegas City Hall is closed Fridays, which means many employees will work only two days this week.

Henderson has the similar four-day work squeeze. Spokeswoman Vicki Taylor said this morning, "I'm lonely."

She said possibly half of the City Hall work force -- including the entire city manager's office -- was absent with pay today.

Calls to Clark County spokesman Doug Bradford Friday to check the status of county employees' schedules succeeded in reaching Bradford's assistant, who said "a lot of people were taking a vacation day (today)." The assistant said, however, that it will be business as usual because middle-managers and assistants will be working.

City of Las Vegas spokesman Erik Pappa said this morning there were "a few empty desks, but enough (people on duty) to get the job done." He added that the morning commute was great, far different from the usual jam-packed Monday traffic.