Perkins drew pay from police job while working in Legislature

Dan Kulin

Thursday, Oct. 23, 2003 | 11:08 a.m.

Almost every week during the 2003 Legislature and the two special sessions that followed, Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins logged 19 hours a week as Henderson's deputy police chief.

Perkins, D-Henderson, said that while in Carson City he was able to use a telephone and computer to conduct conference calls with the Henderson Police captains that he supervises, deal with personnel issues, and evaluate the effectiveness of new patrol beats implemented just before the session began.

"Whatever I do daily here I was able to do there except meet face to face," Perkins said. As the deputy police chief responsible for the operations of the department, Perkins supervises most of Henderson's roughly 230 police officers including patrol officers and detectives.

"Telecommuting is very compatable with my (police) job," Perkins said.

As assembly speaker, Perkins is the highest ranking Democrat in the state government, and was in the middle of many of the most important negotiations during this year's sessions, which ended with the state's largest tax increase on record.

In addition to leading the assembly, Perkins served on the Commerce and Labor committee, which met Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He was also a member of the Ways and Means committee, which met daily Monday through Friday during the session.

Perkins said that while in Carson City he spent a few hours on police work most days. Then on weekends or other days he was able to travel back to Henderson during the session, Perkins said he would go into the police station to work some more.

"They always got more than 19 hours a week from me," Perkins said.

According to Henderson records obtained by the Sun through a Public Information Act request, Perkins typically worked 19 hours a week and took 19 hours a week in vacation time while the Legislature was in session in 2003. Henderson employees work 38-hour workweeks. In weeks there was a holiday, Perkins put in for one day, 9.5 hours, of regular pay, one day of holiday pay and two days of vacation time.

During the two-week adjournment of the second special session at the beginning of July, Perkins logged six regular 9.5 hour workdays, two vacation days and a holiday with the police department.

Overall, Perkins was paid for 41 vacation days, 44 days of regular work and three holidays between the beginnings and ends of the regular and special sessions, which ran from Feb. 3 to June 12 and then from June 25 to July 21.

"I haven't taken a family vacation in 10 years because I save them up for the session," Perkins said.

Perkins annual salary from Henderson is $121,714. Before the start of the current fiscal year on July 1, Perkins salary was $117,883.

The pay records show that Perkins was generally paid for regular hours worked Mondays and Tuesdays and then used vacation days for Wednesdays and Thursdays. However, those records don't accurately reflect the actual days Perkins worked for the city during the sessions.

Perkins said the records system "is not sophisticated enough to catch an hour here and five hours there."

So instead, Perkins said he and Police Chief Mike Mayberry worked with an understanding that Perkins would spend at least 19 hours a week on police business, and his time records would reflect that even if the days didn't match what was reported.

Perkins said he would regularly update Mayberry on time spent on police work.

Mayberry required that Sun submit questions to him through a subordinate via e-mail. In his e-mail response, Mayberry said that to accommodate the city's computer system, Perkins' time sheets showed he worked full days Monday and Tuesday and took vacation days Wednesday and Thursdays.

"This tracking of Deputy Chief Perkins' hours does not mean that he was here on Monday and Tuesday and on vacation on Wednesday and Thursday during the session. What is does mean is that 19 hours of each week he worked for the police department and 19 hours each week he took vacation. This is clearly an oversimplification," Mayberry wrote.

"I assure you that Deputy Chief Perkins fulfilled more than his 19 hours of responsibility each week. Deputy Chief Perkins' hours were not tracked by the minute, however, I made sure that each week at least 19 hours of work was done by him."

Henderson Human Resources Director Daryl Moore said the city's computer system makes it difficult to document hours worked outside what the computer sees as the typical shift for an employee. Because of this, Moore said, each department head has been given "incredible discretion" in dealing with how to report hours worked.

Moore said because Perkins is a salaried employee, and not an hourly employee, she's not too concerned that the hours Perkins worked might not match up with what the records show.

However, if Perkins was an hourly employee the situation would concern her because the city needs to closely track the hours worked by those employees to make sure they are paid any overtime they are due. Salaried employees are not paid overtime.

While Perkins appears to have the full backing of his supervisor for the time worked and paid for, other legislators have run onto trouble for apparently misrepresenting their time worked during the sessions.

The Clark County manager is reportedly recommending two parks department employees who are state legislators -- Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-Las Vegas, and Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas -- be fired because they reported sick time when they were in session.

Perkins did not use any sick days during the sessions.

Also, Las Vegas officials have disciplined two employees, Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, and his supervisor, Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom, for time card discrepancies in 2003. An investigation also has been launched into time cards Williams and Assemblyman Morse Arberry, who worked with him and left the city in early 2002, filed while they were serving in the Legislature in 2001.

Additionally, Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, also received pay from his job as a North Las Vegas firefighter while the Legislature was in session. A review of the records show he was not in Carson City during any of the days he was paid for being on duty.