Nevada Power employees fired

Kevin Rademacher

Friday, Dec. 17, 2004 | 11:22 a.m.

Nevada Power Co. has confirmed that 13 employees have been fired amid an internal investigation into alleged wrongdoing at the electric utility.

The investigation began late this summer when two "midlevel" employees brought concerns about the actions of some employees to Walter Higgins, chief executive of the utility's parent company, Sierra Pacific Resources.

In the subsequent investigation, such misdeeds as padding hours, theft and drug use on the job were uncovered, said Pat Shalmy, president of Nevada Power. He would not identify the fired employees, describing them as management and nonmanagement workers.

Shalmy added that the investigation is ongoing and that a dollar amount of the losses suffered by the company is still unknown.

"I assure you that we don't think it is material enough that it will affect ratepayers," he said.

Shalmy also said that the dismissed employees were not acting in concert. While some may have worked at the same location, the 13 were from around the Las Vegas Valley and were fired for unrelated actions.

"This is not (an organized) group," Shalmy said. "This is a broad investigation that found inappropriate behavior at several locations."

He added that the utility has about 1,700 employees. "It's a shame that 13 put a black eye on the company like this."

In conducting the investigation, Nevada Power enlisted the help of outside security consultants including some former FBI employees.

The company emphasized that neither the allegation brought forward by employees or facts turned over so far in the internal investigation involved utility employees taking bribes from builders to expedite service, Shalmy said. That statement contradicts claims made in other local news reports.

"That was not one of the things we heard first, nor has that been found over the course of our investigation specifically," Shalmy said. "Whether payoffs from developers have happened ... now that it's been brought up, we are going to take a look at that."

The company has not decided whether it will press charges against the fired employees, and at this point no law enforcement agencies have been involved in the investigation.

"That's still being discussed," he said.

Rebecca Wagner, a spokeswoman for the state Public Utilities Commission, said regulators have not been involved in the matter. She added that, unless the indiscretions had an effect on ratepayers, regulators would not be involved.