Augustine returns to office, feels ‘vindicated’

Monday, Dec. 6, 2004 | 10:42 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Controller Kathy Augustine, the first state official ever impeached and convicted in Nevada, said she is returning to work today "vindicated" after being found guilty of misuse of government property.

She says the censure she was given Saturday by the state Senate was like a "bawling out" given to a child by a parent.

And she left open the door for a run for another political office in two years when her term expires. She had talked about running for Congress.

Augustine, the first woman to hold the office of Nevada controller, is in her second term. Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said Augustine's censure was "hardly" a vindication. By a 14-7 vote, she was convicted of misusing telephones, fax machines and office equipment in her 2002 run for re-election.

The 14 votes were needed because the law required a two-thirds vote for a guilty verdict by the 21-member Senate. Six of the 12 Republicans and eight of the nine Democrats voted for the conviction.

Asked about Augustine's possible future in politics, Raggio said he has seen people who have "gone through travail and discipline" yet were later elected.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the censure was "a slap on the hand." She said she favored a stiffer penalty but could not get the necessary votes.

Titus, who voted to convict on all three counts, said "censure was the best we could get."

"My problem is that she (Augustine) offered to resign back in March and they (the attorney general's office) didn't accept that offer. The governor called for her to resign. Sen. (John) Ensign called for her to resign," she said. "(When Augustine offered to resign in March) we had an opportunity for a new election. That would have taken care of the problem and they didn't want to do that and they put together a pretty weak case."

The special legislative session to conduct the impeachment cost the taxpayers anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000, said Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. Titus, who is considering a run for governor in two years, said elected "officials should be held to the highest standard and that was not done." It is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to pay for campaigns "and we shouldn't do it whether it's $1 or $1 million."

"Nevada has become like a rotten borough again with so much political corruption," Titus said. "You've got to stop it somewhere. It's no wonder that public is cynical when they see elected officials getting away with things and they seeing them putting their own interests above the public's interest.'

Senate Democrats will draft a bill to tighten the state's ethic laws, Titus said.

Augustine faced possible removal from office if she had been convicted of all three counts. She had been suspended with pay from her $80,000 a year job since she was impeached by the Assembly on Nov. 11 of three counts of misusing her office staff, the state computer and the equipment.

Augustine declined to say how much her legal fees amounted to but said it was in the "thousands of dollars." She said she would pay the fees with her personal funds.

Lawyers Dominic Gentile of Las Vegas and John Arrascada of Reno declined to say how much they billed Augustine for the legal work. They said that was between them and the Internal Revenue Service. But Gentile said his office put in 1,500 hours in research and investigation.

Augustine was fined $15,000 by the state Ethics Commission after she agreed to a stipulation that she that she should have known her office staff was working on the campaign during state time and that the computer and equipment was being used. She is paying that off with $500 monthly installments.

The Senate, by an 11-9 vote, dismissed the charge that Augustine had forced her executive assistant Jennifer Normington to work on her campaign. It took a simple majority to dismiss the allegation. Normington had said she worked 100 percent of her time on the campaign in the three months leading up to the election.

The Senate voted 11-10 Saturday to sustain the evidence that Augustine was guilty of the misuse of the computer. It took 14 votes to get a conviction so she was exonerated on that count. Augustine was sitting in the gallery of the Senate when that vote was taken and she bowed her head, crying.

During the Senate trial that started Dec. 1, past employees testified that Augustine was given to temper tantrums and would even throw papers at them when she was mad.

But Augustine said Saturday she would not change her management style. She noted there has not been one grievance filed against her in the six years she has held the office and she has not fired one person.

Management, she said "had nothing to do with kindness. It has to do with style. I want to do the right thing." She said the allegations were brought by "disgruntled employees" Normington and former assistant controller Jeanine Coward.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, who voted to acquit Augustine on all three counts, said the case "in many ways was comedy of errors." Augustine's conduct did not amount to an impeachable offense, he said.

For instance, Beers said, the prosecution presented evidence from floppy discs that were allegedly copied from the computer in the Augustine office to show there was campaign work done on it. But he said there was never any verification that the Augustine computer actually showed that it was the one that was used. "Without that, these discs could have been manufactured," Beers said.

He said the prime witnesses contradicted themselves many times and were contradicted by others. "This computer evidence was two-thirds duplicate copies and blank papers." And there was no proof that the remaining one-third ever existed on government computers.

Augustine's defense lawyers did not call a witness, although they had 36 people on their list. After the Senate voted to dismiss the first count that she misused her employees in the campaign, her attorneys rested their case.

The resolution of conviction, endorsed by every Senator except Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said "Augustine failed to clearly identify for her staff the differences between political activity that is improper to conduct on state time and the job duties for which they were employed," it said her conduct is unacceptable and "demonstrates disrespect for the laws of the state."

The resolution, SR5, states that Augustine is convicted of misdemeanor malfeasance in office.

The last state official censured by the Legislature was Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa but it was not in an impeachment proceeding. The lawmakers were irked at Del Papa for efforts to remove a local government official in Lincoln County involving the proposed nuclear dump at Yucca Mountain.

Coffin, the only Democrat to vote against finding Augustine guilty of misuse of government property, complained that "this whole thing was political from beginning to end." He called the evidence "picayune" and said "the state has punished her quite a bit" with the $15,000 fine by the ethics commission.

He also said other public officials are doing the same things Augustine did. Coffin said Augustine "watched the money" in the controller's office and she was not accused of corruption. She owes an apology to her employees, he said, adding he could not think of any reason to remove her from office or censure her.

Meanwhile, Augustine said Sunday that she soon expects more good news, this time regarding a federal sexual harassment lawsuit filed against her by her former chief deputy Art Ingram. Ingram's lawyer has agreed to dismiss the suit and the papers are waiting the signature of a judge, Augustine said.

Ingram, on duty with the Army in Germany, accused her of "sexual stalking" him after he refused her romantic advances. She denied the allegations.

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