LV sets guidelines for workers who are elected

Sito Negron

Thursday, June 3, 2004 | 10:05 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday approved a long-debated policy on handling employees who are elected officials or campaigning for elected office.

The policy, effective Jan. 1, 2005, is aimed at state legislators but applies to all elected offices. It stemmed from the turmoil during the fall in which it was discovered that Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, who was a city employee, had received city pay while the Legislature was in session.

He claimed he worked the hours for which he was paid, but a city investigation determined otherwise. Williams was fired, and his supervisor, former Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom, was reassigned to another city department.

The new policy states that an employee must notify the city of his intent to file for office and take leave without pay or benefits and turn in city equipment as of the date of filing. If the candidate wins office, he must take leave without pay or benefits during the session. When the Legislature is not meeting, an employee can use up to two days of leave with pay.

Employees who serve in the Legislature also must keep up contributions to city benefit systems to continue to be eligible for those benefits. They may not use cell phones, laptops or other equipment during the term in office and are restricted on a case-by-case basis from using city resources such as staff time.

The policy also sets some criteria by which to determine if a possible conflict of interest exists, and, if so, the employee may be transferred to a different position if elected. For example, if the job involves regulation of the city budget, if their absence will create problems for their department, or if their position involves exercise of political power, such as in the case of ward liaisons.

The city cannot lobby the employee, and any contact with the elected official during the session must be through the city manager or a person designated by the city manager.

The City Council first asked City Manager Doug Selby to come up with a policy at a November special meeting. He presented the council members with policy options in early January, and the council has kicked the idea forward several times since then.

Part of the delay was because council members wanted to see a report from the Nevada attorney general. His opinion, released in March, held that state employees were part of the executive branch and could not serve in the Legislature, but that local employees were eligible.

The Nevada Supreme Court is hearing a challenge to the opinion.

During the period in which the city had repeatedly postponed a decision on the policy, Ricki Barlow, a liaison for Councilman Lawrence Weekly's office, filed as a candidate in Assembly District 1.

Because Barlow already had filed for office and could not take his name off the ballot because the deadline to do so had passed, the council decided it would not be fair to force him to comply with a policy that was not in effect when he first filed. So the council made the police effective as of January.

"It is not our intention to penalize Mr. Barlow," Mayor Oscar Goodman said.

In other action, council members:

The city partially had been in control of the system. The negotiations regarding the rights of the less than 20 city employees who would become RTC employees slowed the negotiations.

The system is called the Freeway and Arterial System of Transportation, or FAST. It is to be funded through part of Question 10, a $2.7 billion tax package for transportation improvements.