Race for state controller’s seat shaping up as aggressive battle

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 | 10:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- The state controller, who usually labors in near obscurity maintaining the state's accounting system and preparing annual financial statements, is getting a higher profile this election year.

Three-term Assemblyman John Lee of Las Vegas has served notice he's going to run an aggressive campaign to try to unseat one-term Controller Kathy Augustine.

"If I ran my business the way she runs her office, I would fire me," said Lee, who owns plumbing and tile companies in Las Vegas. He has more employees in his two businesses than Augustine has in her state office.

Lee, a Democrat, says he intends to spend $150,000 to $200,000 on the campaign for a job that pays $80,000 a year. He has raised $50,000 so far, he said.

Republican Augustine questioned the qualifications of her challenger, noting, "He's a plumber by trade." Augustine, a former airline flight crew controller, was criticized four years ago because she was not an accountant, which some thought was necessary to run the office.

Augustine said she intends to spend up to $500,000 to win a second and final term. The Nevada Constitution limits state elective officials to two terms. Augustine had raised just under $8,000 by Jan. 15, according to campaign filings to the Secretary of State's Office. The next filing is due in August.

One challenge will be to get people to understand and care about the race, the controller said.

"A lot of people walking down the street don't know anything about it," Augustine said. "Nobody cares about the controller." But it's an important office, she said.

Augustine said she plans to explain the new Integrated Financial System, which to the average resident is about as interesting as watching grass grow. But it will streamline government accounting when it is completed this summer, she said.

She also takes pride in her efforts to collect debts owed state government. Nobody, she said, was collecting debt from bad checks or fines or other sources of revenue before she took office. She went after those unpaid debts.

"We will be collecting $100,000 a month," soon from past due accounts, Augustine said. She expects a $1 million settlement in the next few months from a mining company in Lyon County, she said.

Two private companies go after deadbeats for the state -- one reimbursed 11.25 percent of what it collects and the other, which seeks debts of more than $25,000, getting 50 percent.

Lee criticized both efforts, noting that the Integrated Financial System hasn't been completed in Augustine's four years in office. That displays a lack of leadership, he said.

In addition, Lee said, the state office has the ability to collect bad debts, rather than hiring two private firms, which costs the state money.

But the hottest issue could revolve around Augustine's travel habits. Lee fired the first salvo when he tried to visit Augustine in her Carson City office last week to pledge a clean campaign. She was in Taiwan.

Lee said Augustine spends more time running a travel agency than the controller's office, which handles billions of dollars in transactions a year.

"She has a history of being on the road more than being in the office," Lee said. "I don't begrudge anybody a vacation, but her priorities are traveling and not in the office."

Asked about her Taiwan trip, Augustine said it was paid for by the Taiwanese government, not Nevada taxpayers. She was part of a Nevada delegation that included state legislators to talk about economic development. Nevada companies sell computer components to Taiwan, which are then used in assembling computers, she said.

She pointed out that as a former Delta employee, she is entitled to free flights anywhere in the world, so she doesn't need to go on state-paid trips.

State legislators last year expressed concern about Augustine's travels. Auditors said she took numerous state-paid trips to Las Vegas to attend political party functions or social events.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno and Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, who headed their respective budget committees, sent a letter to Augustine saying her past trips may not have been to benefit the controller's office.

It is rare for legislators to question the justification of state travel of an elective official.

Augustine said her trips to Las Vegas were necessary because she did not have an office in Southern Nevada -- she's the only constitutional officer without an office there.

She said she had to conduct controller's business in restaurants and other places while in Southern Nevada. She said there was no documentation available to show they were business trips.

Augustine now has an office in Las Vegas and visits it several times a month. She still maintains her home and voting residence in Las Vegas, she said.