Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 11:35 a.m.
Assembly Speaker and Henderson deputy police chief Richard Perkins said this morning he will help lead the charge for a law that would require government employees take a leave of absence during legislative sessions.
Perkins is following a call by Gov. Kenny Guinn, who has encouraged the Legislature to look at the issue, and Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who has asked for a bill for the next session.
Controversy has surrounded county and city employees who served in the state Legislature and drew pay from their full-time jobs and the state.
Using a combination of vacation days, holidays, and regular pay Perkins, D-Henderson, received full-time pay from the city during the 2003 legislative session. City officials say they believe Perkins did the work he said he did during the session.
Perkins also received credit in both the Public Employees Retirement System and the legislative retirement fund during the session.
But Perkins said because of problems with public perception of double-dipping and possible time-card abuse by some of his fellow legislators, the state needs a clear policy for all government workers who serve in the Legislature.
"I think the state needs a policy so we have consistency statewide," Perkins said. "What worked in Henderson didn't work in other local governments."
Perkins' call for a new policy to require government workers take an unpaid leave of absence while in Carson City, comes a day after an initiative petition was filed calling for public employees to be banned from the state Legislature.
Also on Thursday Guinn and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said legislators who are government employees should take unpaid leave during legislative sessions.
Eric Herzik, a political scientist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the proposals by Perkins and Titus won't head off the initiative petition to bar public employees from the Legislature.
The initiative backers "plainly want government employees out of the Legislature," he said.
He said the proposal by Perkins was a "good defensive move" in light of his drawing two pays.
But he said that the plan by Perkins and Titus would discourage a lot of people from running for the Legislature which is a part-time job. He said the Legislature would consist of an "elite group."
Guinn said public employees who also serve in the Legislature should not be able to gain credit in two retirement systems -- the Public Employees Retirement System and the legislative retirement system -- while the Legislature is in session.
Three weeks ago Titus asked for a bill to be drafted to require all public employees to take leave without pay while serving during the Legislature.
She said this is "a better approach" than the initiative petition that seeks to bar public employees from being elected to the Legislature. "This tightens up the conflict of interest law," she said.
It keeps a citizen Legislature and keeps the expertise of those who serve in government, she said.
She said this may hurt such lawmakers as Assemblyman John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, who on weekends had worked at his job as a fireman in Southern Nevada. She added, "But if you make exceptions, it's never ending."
Titus is also proposing to tighten up the financial disclosure reporting form to better reveal the financial ties of public officials to various companies.
Titus takes an unpaid leave of absence from her job as a political science professor at UNLV during the Legislature. She said she loses six months of credit in the Public Employees Retirement System during that time. But she is enrolled in the legislators pension plan during that time.
Gibson, who is expected to face Perkins in the 2006 Democratic primary for governor, said he expects the Henderson City Council will soon consider a policy that would require any city employee who is also a legislator to take a leave of absence during the state sessions.
Council members Amanda Cyphers and Andy Hafen also said this morning they think such a policy is needed. Together, Cyphers, Hafen and Gibson constitute a majority of the council, and so would be able to pass such a policy.
The three Henderson elected officials said they think Perkins did work the hours he was paid for and the police chief has said Perkins always worked at least 19 hours a week during the session.
But the council members said the city needs such a policy to address the public perception of possible wrongdoing. They also said the city should not be dealing with such issues on a case by case basis and instead have a policy that treats all city employees the same.
"Being a public official isn't always fair because you're held to a higher standard," Cyphers said. "You need to avoid even the perception of wrongdoing."
Gibson said: "There may be instances where they do what they say they are doing. But we just have to have a policy that is not favoring one employee over another."
Gibson also said that some state legislators who work in the private sector are not able to collect a paycheck while serving in Carson City.
"I don't think we can justify having the government be more liberal ... than the private sector," he said.
Perkins said that while he worked the hours he was paid for, in retrospect the pay caused a perception problem.
Perkins said he will head off the problem in the future by not taking pay from the city, regardless of the law.
"I plan on working for the police department I just don't plan on being paid for it," Perkins said.
The speaker generally logged 19 hours of regular pay a week while in Carson City, which Perkins said he was able to work do by using a telephone and computer to telecommute to his job in Henderson, and going into work on some weekends or other breaks during the session.
Two Las Vegas Democrats, Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson and Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, were fired last week from their Clark County government jobs after allegedly receiving on-duty pay improperly while they were serving this year in Carson City. Both have appealed their firings.
Also, Assemblyman Wendell Williams, another Las Vegas Democrat who is an administrator in the Las Vegas Neighborhood Services Department, has come under fire for alleged city time-card improprieties during his time in Carson City.
However, to get to the next session in 2005, Perkins will first have to be re-elected in November 2004. And possible problems with the federal Hatch Act could force Perkins to choose between running for the Assembly and continuing to work for the police department.
Gibson said Perkins will not be able to keep his job as a city deputy police chief and run for the state Legislature again unless the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, a federal agency which oversees the federal Hatch Act, reverses its opinion that Perkins would violate the act if he did.
Gibson, who is expected to face Perkins as candidates in the Democratic primary for governor in 2006, said he didn't know whether the city would have to fire Perkins if he tried to run again while still a deputy police chief, but he said it would be a situation that "couldn't exist."
In its Sept. 30 letter, the Office of Special Counsel said in the past Perkins unknowingly violated the Hatch Act, which outlaws elected officials from serving in public jobs that include overseeing federal grant money. The office said any future violations of the act could result in disciplinary action.
Because of this, Gibson said the city cannot risk losing federal grant money by allowing that to happen.
"Now we've been put on notice so we can't have that happen. That ends it for me," Gibson said. "But I don't know what we'd be forced to do."
But Perkins is confident he won't have to choose.
"The city of Henderson and I were always in compliance with the Hatch Act and we will continue to be," Perkins said.
Perkins said he expects the Office of Special Counsel will reverse its decision on his case after he shows the office how the city has been able to keep him away from federal funds.
For example, the city developed a Hatch Act compliance program, which is intended to inform employees of who is covered by the act and ensure that Perkins does not have any substantial contact with those covered by the act.
Also, Perkins said the police department has an unwritten alternative organizational chart that guides officers involved with federal grant funds away from Perkins. And members of the police department were instructed several years ago in a memo from the chief to keep federal grant-related matters away from Perkins, the speaker said.
A police spokesman said he could not find the memo Thursday when asked for it. The chief did not return several phone calls over the last three days.
Perkins said he didn't know when his additional information will be given to the Office of Special Counsel.
Those public employees who are also politicians could face another obstacle if a recently filed initiative petition is successful. A group calling itself Nevadans For Sound Government filed an initiative petition Thursday to bar all public employees from serving in the Legislature. The group needs 51,243 signatures to get the initiative on the 2004 ballot.
Gibson said that because he and Perkins are both expected to run for governor in 2006, he has been especially careful to try to keep the matter from turning into a political issue between the two Democrats.
Gibson said that for Henderson the issues are bigger than how Perkins' situation is ultimately addressed.
"It's part of the responsibility we owe to the taxpayers," Gibson said. "We have to do what we can to avoid putting government in a bad light."
Sun Reporter
Cy Ryan contributed to this report.
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