Guinn to call special session: Lawmakers fail to reach deal on reapportionment

Erin Neff

Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 10:54 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- After a hopeful start to reapportionment negotiations Monday the 71st Legislative session ended after midnight this morning with no solution to the state's largest political battle and lawmakers rushing the clock to conclude the state's business.

Gov. Kenny Guinn readied two special session proclamations in case reapportionment negotiations were friendly and close enough to lead to a resolution in swift time.

As Republicans and Democrats grew further apart, the first proclamation to convene a special session at 1 a.m. today was not used. Guinn's second proclamation calls for a special session to begin at 10 a.m. Monday, but Guinn did not sign that either.

The governor said he would get some legal advice and decide this week on when a special session should be held and what should be on its agenda.

Lawmakers nervously eyed the clock all evening Monday wondering when they'd hear the final word on negotiations between Republicans and Democrats over Nevada's third congressional seat.

As 8 p.m. arrived with no solution, there was about an 8,500-person difference in the 660,000-person congressional district, Assembly Democrats retreated to a "fall back" position on state Senate and Assembly seats.

Thus any tentative plan to expand the size of the Legislature from 63 to 69 seats quickly evaporated amid partisan battles.

"We were making pretty good progress," Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said as her committee introduced another set of reapportionment maps at 8 p.m. "Unfortunately that has not occurred."

Giunchigliani's committee introduced a plan for a 63-seat Legislature stating they were unwilling to give in to the Republicans' expansion wishes if the other party wouldn't give on Congress.

The Senate Government Affairs Committee waited until 11:30 p.m. to amend the Senate Republicans' reapportionment plan, then quickly sent it to the floor for a vote without maps to accompany them.

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, glanced at his watch at 11:42 p.m. and asked whether the Senate was taking the most appropriate action given the time.

"May I suggest a different order of business?" Coffin said. "Follow the order of the business of the state, paying the teachers, paying the lights and approving the revenue for the state budget."

At 11:47 p.m. the Senate began voting on important budget and appropriation bills, including a last-minute omnibus measure that took care of numerous other bills, trying to beat the clock.

In the Assembly two bills passed clearly after the wall clocks showed midnight.

"It's Lewis Carroll time," Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Reno, said.

Lobbyists rushed onto the floor, cell phones in hand -- a clear violation of normal rules during the session -- to bark orders at lawmakers trying to clear the slate of necessary business.

"This has turned into a farce," Carole Vilardo, president of the Nevada Taxpayers Association, said as she tried to determine what had passed and what hadn't.

Remnants of the reapportionment struggle that seeped into the final minutes of business created a surreal scene more like the final seconds of a tied seventh-game playoff, but with school funding, education services and energy matters hanging in the balance.

The Senate was still conducting business well after midnight, as lawmakers invoked a so-called "Daylight Saving Time" rule.

Monday morning had begun much calmer, despite no clear consensus on state Assembly or Senate seats, congressional districts or Board of Regent seats. But by 11 a.m. word quickly spread throughout the Legislative building that a deal had been reached on a 46-seat Assembly and 23-seat Senate.

Sen. Ann O'Connell, R-Las Vegas, had a bounce in her step and smile on her face after reaching the tentative deal. Lawmakers and lobbyists eased into the 120th day with a cheerful longing for home that appeared just hours away.

But as the day continued, negotiations on the 8,500-person differential proved insurmountable as Republicans worked feverishly to draft a third congressional seat for would-be candidate Sen. Jon Porter, R-Henderson.

Any happiness that normally accompanies sine die -- the official adjournment -- drifted from the faces of lawmakers who fretted about planned vacations to Europe in the coming days and a planned weekend wedding for one assemblywoman's son.

One lobbyist angrily removed a pin worn by hundreds in the building that day proclaiming, "There's no place like home," and said, "How hard can this be?"

When the Assembly introduced its new reapportionment plan at 8 p.m., any thought of official adjournment went out the window with the signal that house was sending to the Senate.

Two hours later Sen. Bill Raggio, R-Reno, struck down Democrat Barbara Buckley's child welfare bill and kept his Senate from the floor until well after 11 p.m., despite numerous business items sent to that house from the Assembly that needed to be resolved by the midnight deadline.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, huddled with staff to determine what bills had to pass by midnight to accomplish the state's business.

At 10:30 p.m. Perkins joined Assembly Democratic leaders in a press conference outside the Assembly chambers, where business was still ongoing, to announce that the people's business did get accomplished in 120 days despite the reapportionment setback.

With numerous budget bills, an energy measure and two key components of revenue for education funding still awaiting some type of action, the list of accomplishments rang hollow for many of the lobbyists crowding around Perkins.

"It is important to understand that we have done the state's work," Perkins said.

Perkins denied any acrimony between the parties and remained confident a solution on reapportionment could still be reached without heading to court.

"We'll work studiously," he added.