Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Government checking into whether Oceguera in violation of Hatch Act

The federal government is looking into whether a $146,200 grant to the North Las Vegas Fire Department, where Assemblyman John Oceguera is a captain, is enough to place him in violation of the Hatch Act.

It's at least the second such inquiry by the federal government of elected Legislature members who also work for public entities. A Sept. 30 letter from the Office of the Special Counsel held that Assemblyman Richard Perkins, a Henderson deputy police chief, could be in violation if he runs again.

Both Perkins and Oceguera are Democrats, something the latter said is no accident.

" I heard several people in my party received those calls," Oceguera said. "But it seemed to be only people in my party."

Several groups are involved in an initiative petition to bar public employees from holding public office, including the group Citizens for Sound Government, which is chaired by George Harris, who also is chairman of the Nevada Republican Liberty Caucus. Also in the group is Knight Allen, who said he is a registered Democrat who does not care about party affiliations when it comes to this issue.

"There's no partisan attack as far as I'm concerned," Allen said. "There's no interest on my part which political party suffers the most. My concern is the Constitution is suffering too much."

Knight wrote the initiative petition, and "I did not hesitate to say yes, and let the political fallout drop where it may."

He also began the local discussion of the Hatch Act by initiating the complaint about Perkins. He said he did it to make a point about government employees sitting in government office.

Perkins said he's confident his employer has taken the steps necessary to remove him from conflict with the Hatch Act, by giving him duties that do not involve oversight of federal grants. The Office of Special Counsel official dealing with his case is back in the office Monday, he said, "so it will be until then we can reach out and talk to them."

He said a resolution could come in three to four weeks.

Another inquiry into potential Hatch Act violations involves Democratic Assemblyman Wendell Williams, a city of Las Vegas employee who last week admitted to handling a federal grant for a city-run program, and said he also followed up on the issue while in the Legislature.

The act, in effect since 1940, applies to state and local employees who work in an executive branch of government that receives certain types of federal money, such as Head Start or community block grants. It does not apply to teachers or other education employees.

In the case of Oceguera, the Office of the Special Counsel is looking into a $146,200 program for physical fitness for firefighters. Oceguera did not "participate in the receipt of the Fire Grant, or in any determination on where the fire Grant would be spent," North Las Vegas attorneys wrote in a May 15 letter to the counsel office.

In a follow-up dated June 19, North Las Vegas Fire Chief Jim Stubler pointed out that the term of the grant for was a year only, although the department planned to make the fitness program permanent.

The idea of the Hatch Act was to prevent people from using their political offices specifically to promote their campaigns, or to reward people who did so. If that idea is extended to cover every public employee, he said, with 125,000 in the state, there's "not too many degrees of separation there before everybody is excluded."

Craig Walton, professor of philosophy and program coordinator of Ethics and Policy Studies at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the intent of the Hatch Act was to combat the pernicious effect of the political machines of the early part of the 20th century.

He said conservative Republicans are trying to use that as a tool to remove Democrats from state office.

"They're saying anyone who does anything at all for the city, county, state or federal government should not be permitted to run for office in the state of Nevada," Walton said. "It's biased. They say nothing about the conflict of interest in lawyers or doctors. Are there no people in the private sector who could have a conflict of interest? Clearly, any person on the planet could have a conflict."

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