DMV director seeks big pay bonus

Monday, July 9, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Using a new law aimed at drawing retired teachers back into the classroom, a high state official is angling for a raise of as much as $70,000.

Dick Kirkland, director of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, will appear before the state Board of Examiners Tuesday to ask it to declare a critical labor shortage in his job.

Kirkland, who earns $103,000 a year, wants to be able to draw his pension earned while he was with the Reno Police Department for 29 years. Before this year a person who retired from the State Public Employees Retirement System could not return to work for another government and draw both pay and the pension.

A bill approved by the 2001 Legislature allows those retired to both receive their pension and get government pay if they fill a job in an area experiencing a critical labor shortage. Kirkland's job is one of several in his department that he is seeking to have declared as a shortage.

Assemblyman Doug Bache, D-Las Vegas, whose Government Affairs Committee processed Assembly Bill 555, called Kirkland's move "a blatant abuse of the law." He said he's sure a number of people would love to have Kirkland's job.

"I don't believe it qualifies as a shortage," Bache said Sunday.

The law, Bache said, was designed to entice retired teachers to come back to the schools where there may be shortages in such areas as special education, math and science.

The bill was originally introduced in 1999, but returned to retirement system officials for study. The system returned in 2001 with its recommendations, which were adopted.

Bache said the law is wide open and can apply to any government job that has a designated shortage.

For instance, the Nevada Supreme Court, the Board of Regents of the University and Community College System of Nevada, the Education Department and local governments are authorized to designate positions in which there may be critical labor shortages.

In making the designation, they must consider the rate of turnover for the post, the number of openings and the number of qualified candidates, the length of time the position has been vacant and the success of recruiting people from other states.

Kirkland, who says there have been five DMVPS directors of in the past five years, was police chief in Reno when he was elected as Washoe County sheriff and retired as police chief. The law permits a retired public employee to draw a pension if he is elected to a county or state job.

As sheriff, Kirkland drew a $78,000 salary, plus the pension from police service, estimated at about $70,000. When he took over as director of DMVPS, he had to forfeit his police pension.

"I took a $20,000-a-year cut when I became sheriff, but I was getting the retirement," Kirkland said. "I'm working for a couple hundred dollars a month."

He said he told Gov. Kenny Guinn he could not remain in the state job for long because of the loss of his pension benefits.

Kirkland is also asking that a number of jobs in his agency be designated as shortage areas, including his chief deputy, who is paid $98,000. Dave Kieckbush, who fills that position, also is a retired officer from the Reno Police Department who cannot draw his pension as long as he has the state job.

Kirkland also wants positions in the parole and probation division, highway patrol and capital police declared as shortages.

Kirkland argued that an unfairness exists in his department because of the rule that prohibits state retirees from collecting both pensions and salaries.

Many officers in the capital and legislative police forces are retired from law enforcement agencies in other states and can draw their pensions and the salary, he said. But Nevada police or sheriff's deputies who retire in Nevada cannot take a job with one of those state agencies without losing their pensions.

It makes sense, Kirkland said to allow good management personnel to work past retirement and draw both compensations.

The Board of Examiners, which will designate where there are shortages, is composed of Guinn, Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa and Secretary of State Dean Heller.