Decision on city workers holding office is delayed

Sito Negron

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 | 9:43 a.m.

Although a new election cycle is approaching, the Las Vegas City Council decided Wednesday to wait until the first meeting in February before deciding on a policy on how to deal with municipal workers who want to serve in elected office.

The city is seeking a policy in the wake of revelations about management and pay issues that resulted in the firing of Assemblyman Wendell Williams and the demotion of his Neighborhood Services boss, Sharon Segerblom. Part of the problem, an audit concluded, was a lack of city policies to deal with an employee who was a lawmaker.

City Manager Doug Selby began the discussion Wednesday by telling the council that city laws allow an employee not subject to the provisions of the Hatch Act to take office, as long as the position is not "clearly inconsistent, incompatible or in conflict with his or her duties as a public employee."

"It's clear the council under which this code was adopted intended to allow an employee to hold office," Selby said. What the code does not specify, however, are the conditions under which an employee can serve. Questions such as whether they can receive pay and benefits or use equipment.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald said the solution is simple -- prohibit employees from serving in office.

She noted that the state attorney general is preparing an opinion on the matter and pointed to the state Constitution, which prohibits someone from serving in more than one of the three branches of government: the executive, legislative and judicial.

Since cities are political subdivisions of the state and must go through the state to establish certain powers -- for example, instituting a sales tax -- municipal employees are by extension part of the state, Boggs McDonald argued.

City Attorney Brad Jerbic said certain municipal jobs fall under different categories -- executive, legislative, or judicial -- but for the most part city employees are executive branch employees, serving under the city manager.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said that generally he supports allowing employees to hold office, as long as they receive no pay or benefits or used any city equipment while in office.

"I would like to see people run, but if they're prohibited under the Constitution, it doesn't matter what I think," Goodman said.

The issue became acute for the city in the fall, when an investigation determined that Williams overcharged the city for work he said he did for the Neighborhood Services Department while he was serving in the 2003 Legislature.

Selby was directed to develop the policy options after a special meeting in November to discuss issues associated with the investigation into Williams, Segerblom, who was reassigned from her director's position with the Neighborhood Services Department, and another former department employee, Assemblyman Morse Arberry.

One of the issues that Boggs McDonald brought up was the federal Hatch Act, which prevents most municipal employees who handle federal grants from serving in elected office.

Williams has said that while with the city he handled projects that received federal funding. At the November special meeting the City Council directed the city attorney to seek an opinion from the federal Office of the Special Counsel on whether that violated the Hatch Act.

"We are putting our own federal grants at risk," said Boggs McDonald, who noted that the city received $40 million in federal funding, about 10.5 percent of its general fund budget. Anything "short of an outright ban is just waiting on peril and disaster," she said.