Legislators criticize agency for management of funds

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2001 | 9:51 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state Division of Emergency Management is in hot water with top legislators for its failure to develop regulations governing emergency relief fund spending.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, says the agency seems to be using the money as "a slush fund." He cited instances in which $16,000 was spent for a public information officer and $1,000 was spent on sandwiches.

Perkins said the $16,118 was spent for a public information officer for the state Bureau of Licensure and Certification and the $1,059 for meals brought into the emergency center for staff members monitoring the Y2K situation on New Year's Eve.

"You have four years, and you don't have the appropriate regulations," Perkins said Monday during a meeting of the Legislative Interim Finance Committee.

Division leaders such as Frank Siracusa did not attend the meeting because he was at a conference in Las Vegas. Carol English, deputy chief of the administrative services division in the state Department of Public Safety, had to pinch hit for Siracusa and others.

The agency failed to file quarterly reports on how the fund, which included more than $500,000, was used. English, making it clear she was only the messenger, said there was a snafu, although the agency was catching up now on its reports.

And the regulations, she said, have been held up.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said the agency failed to submit "satisfactory" reports, and he wants the top dogs in the division to appear at the next meeting.

The fund was set up to be used for disasters, Raggio said. "Everybody must know how to access the funds. This is too long for this to be hanging."

Perkins complained there must be guidelines for local governments to apply for this money.

The Legislature allocated $2 million for a disaster relief fund, of which $500,000 was to go to emergency assistance. The regulations in question are for emergency assistance.

In the past fiscal year the division spent $159,314 to relocate the staff of the state Division of Child and Family Services because mold was found in its buildings. More than $20,000 was spent for emergency laboratory testing in the Fallon leukemia cluster investigation.