Work card system called ‘bloated monster’

Tuesday, March 6, 2001 | 2 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The work-card system in Southern Nevada has become a "bloated monster," a Metro police official told a state Senate committee Monday.

However, efforts have started to reform its procedures, Metro Lt. Stan Olsen said.

Work cards are associated with Nevada's stringent regulation of the gaming industry. They are required of almost everyone who works in a casino. Background checks, conducted in Southern Nevada by Metro, are a prerequisite to obtaining a card.

Olsen told the Senate Government Affairs Committee that the work card "started out to deal with organized crime and to protect the tourist, but it has become unmanageable at times."

Olsen was one of a number of witnesses at a hearing on Senate Bill 256, sponsored by Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-North Las Vegas. The bill would ease the standards for getting a work card for non-gaming employees who work in a casino.

Carlton's bill gained support from the ACLU, the Alliance for Workers Rights, the NAACP, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada and the Interfaith Council for Social Justice. But it ran into opposition from law enforcement.

JoNell Thomas, a lawyer representing the ACLU, said such occupations as cooks and waiters should not be required to get work cards, even though they work in casinos. She suggested that a work card should not be denied solely because of an arrest. Just because a person had a conviction for possession of marijuana a long time ago doesn't mean he isn't suitable for employment, she said.

Supporters argued that people have a "fundamental right to work" and these barriers should not be placed in their way.

Carlton's bill provides that a non-gaming employee in a casino could not be denied a work permit solely because he or she had been arrested or had been convicted of a crime seven or more years before applying for the work permit. It also would bar local governments from televising appeals of work-card denials.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, criticized that wording, saying someone could serve eight years in prison, be released, and get a work card the following day.

Olsen proposed that a person convicted of a felony must wait seven years after completing the sentence or probation, five years after completing the sentence on a gross misdemeanor and two years after a misdemeanor.

Olsen said Clark County and Las Vegas are considering a plan that would eliminate the requirement for a work permit for such jobs as busboys, porters, waiters and waitresses. But Metro, he said, is adamant that anybody with access to a hotel room must have a work card.

John Redline, assistant city attorney in Las Vegas, called the bill a "very, very bad idea." In the four years he has been with Las Vegas, he said, he has seen only about a dozen people turned down when they appealed their denial to the City Council. This is not a "dreadful situation," he said.

In Las Vegas, he said, the city requires work permits for those with access to rooms, those who serve alcohol and those involved in child care. The city, he said, doesn't require cards for busboys or waitresses unless they serve liquor.

The committee did not take any action on the bill.