Reilly OK with less-than-record pay

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, July 5, 2001 | 10:35 a.m.

Thom Reilly never expected to break salary records.

But the incoming Clark County manager was tossed into a contentious battle involving his bosses when three commissioners decided in June that Reilly should make $193,000 a year -- $30,000 more than his predecessor.

After a lengthy debate Tuesday, the board voted 7-0 to pay Reilly what outgoing County Manager Dale Askew was earning -- $160,000 a year.

"I think it was a generous offer, and I'm looking forward to starting officially," said Reilly, who will leave his associate professor post at UNLV at the end of the month.

Reilly didn't attend the meeting in which commissioners feuded over how much a first-time county manager should make and whether it should far exceed the amount earned by Askew, who has worked at the county for 18 years and served as its leader for four.

They also debated whether the salary and pay scale were being increased because of Reilly -- a friend of commissioners -- or whether the county and the manager's responsibilities have grown so significantly that the pay should be upped.

"We need to take the person out of it and look at it as a corporation with a $2 billion budget," Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey argued. "What would the executive of that corporation make?"

Kincaid-Chauncey, along with commissioners Erin Kenny and Chip Maxfield, was on the task force that arrived at the $193,000 figure after looking into the salaries of other Southern Nevada leaders.

Las Vegas City Manager Virginia Valentine makes $167,425 a year; Henderson City Manager Phil Speight, who has been at the helm for 13 years, earns $164,406 annually.

However, Bill Hale, executive director of University Medical Center, makes about $236,000 annually, and Manny Cortez, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau, makes $215,488 a year.

Kenny and Kincaid-Chauncey complained the low pay is one reason the county has lost top administrators to neighboring cities.

"We should be willing to pay top dollar for top people," Kenny said. "We will be losing more and more of our qualified staff to the cities that pay better."

Despite arguments from the three task force members that Askew was "grossly underpaid," they failed to convince the majority of the board to pay Reilly the unprecedented amount.

"I think it would be wrong, and I think Mr. Reilly would agree," Commissioner Bruce Woodbury said.

Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, a strong supporter of Reilly, said that to pay Reilly a record-breaking salary would send the wrong message to residents, who didn't get a tax rebate because the county lost money due to legislative action.

"I respect the comparisons to the private sector, but the comparison is inappropriate," Herrera said. "The difference is this is taxpayers' money."

Reilly was out of town when the task force met. He said he never discussed salary possibilities with any of the commissioners.

"I came in expecting a salary around what Dale was making," Reilly said Tuesday. "When the committee met, they never asked my thoughts, and I never had the opportunity to read the transcripts."

Reilly, who has a doctorate in public administration, will begin his new job July 27.