Columnist Jeff German: Guinn cuts high-cost security

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2002 | 11:17 a.m.

With talk of terrorism threats on everyone's mind, you might find it odd to hear Gov. Kenny Guinn promise to spend less state money to protect visiting dignitaries.

But these are odd times, particularly for the Republican governor, who's trying to balance the state's budget with dwindling revenues.

Guinn is in the unenviable position of having to recommend imposing as much as $335 million in new taxes next year to keep Nevada afloat.

So the governor is looking to show the taxpayers that he's ready to cut back on spending.

Last week, following a state Board of Examiners meeting, Guinn said Nevada no longer can afford to shell out big money to protect governors who come to Las Vegas for political conferences.

Guinn supported giving the Nevada Highway Patrol $75,223 in overtime costs for protecting 15 visiting Republican governors who attended a partisan gathering in Las Vegas a year ago.

But he said the next time any of his colleagues, Republican or Democrat, travel here, the state won't be so generous.

That will be in two weeks.

Guinn wants to trim by two-thirds the state's cost of protecting a dozen members of the Western Governors Association when they meet in Las Vegas on Dec. 5 and 6.

The governor is hoping that Green Valley Ranch Station, the site of the conference, will pick up the slack with more of its own officers. Maybe some of the visiting governors will bring their personal bodyguards, too.

Unlike his Democratic predecessor, former Gov. Bob Miller, Guinn has never been wild about bringing these kinds of meetings to Las Vegas.

Miller made the city a popular destination for the gatherings, hosting the granddaddy of them all, the National Governors Association, in July 1997. That event, along with the March 1998 Lake Tahoe visits of former President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore, cost the state $316,101 for protection services alone.

Miller, it turned out, was extremely security conscious.

He persuaded the Legislature in 1997 to create a security detail for the Nevada governor's office, a benefit Guinn now enjoys.

The detail has an annual budget of $615,342, which covers seven officers who primarily are assigned to the governor's mansion 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

It's a big chunk of extra change for a governor who's trying to show the taxpayers that he's being frugal with the state's money.

Though he's eager to trim the cost of protecting his fellow governors, Guinn has yet to publicly suggest reductions in his own security detail.

Maybe he thinks he'll need the extra protection once the public realizes how much more in taxes he wants it to pay next year. When the taxpayers are unhappy, after all, no one is immune from their wrath, even popular governors.

A more realistic reason not to disturb the current security setup might have something to do with a recent threat on the governor's life that officers assigned to the protection detail investigated.

Guinn was the subject of a telephone threat on Aug. 31 after the lights went out at the Silver Bowl before the end of the Wisconsin-UNLV football game. A caller telephoned 911 from the Fremont to warn that the governor had "12 hours to live."

The security detail eventually identified and tracked down the suspect at Binion's Horseshoe. Not enough evidence was gathered to charge him with threatening Guinn's life, but he was hit with other felony charges and now is behind bars.

Despite the good police work, you would think that Guinn still would have room to scale back his personal protection.

Nevada Budget Director Perry Comeaux, however, doesn't necessarily share that opinion.

"I don't know how you would run that detail with fewer positions," Comeaux says.

Still, if corners can be cut protecting Guinn's visiting colleagues, why can't corners be cut protecting the governor?

At the very least, it would keep the governor on the good side of the taxpayers next year. He's going to need all of the help he can get in that endeavor.