Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

AG decision might face legal challenge

With five affected lawmakers promising to run for re-election, the courts will have to decide if Attorney General Brian Sandoval's ruling that would bar state workers from serving in the Legislature will stand.

The attorney general's office, in an opinion issued Monday, ruled that state employees cannot serve in the Legislature without violating the constitutional separation of powers doctrine, which sets the three branches of government apart.

City and county employees, though, can serve without a conflict of interest, Sandoval said.

So far five of the six legislators affected by the opinion have said they will run despite Sandoval's opinion.

"I've always played by the rules, and I don't consider the rules to have changed," Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said. "This is just an opinion until the court moves forward with it."

Titus had said she would consider a run for Congress against Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., if Sandoval ruled the way he did. But after spending the weekend thinking about the issue, she said, she decided to fight Sandoval's ruling.

"The fact that they say I can't be in the Legislature has gotten me more fired up than ever," she said.

But Sandoval said his office has "not taken the next step" to determine what action to take if state or university employees file for office, win and continue to hold their job. He said his office is preparing to defend the opinion in court.

Titus, who has been a professor at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, for 25 years, said she expects the issue to go to court after the November elections, when state employees try to take office again.

Gov. Kenny Guinn said his administration "will respect the opinion." But he added, "I would be surprised if there were not any challenges."

Indeed, on Monday legislators and their advisers said they still have unanswered questions and they expect it will end up in court.

"Somebody may have to take it to court and get an expedited ruling," Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said.

Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, agreed that the opinion likely will be challenged in court. Giunchigliani is a director of school district and community relations for the Community College of Southern Nevada.

"It actually created more questions than actually resolving anything," she said. "I'm planning on running for re-election, period."

The only affected legislator who has not publicly vowed to fight the opinion is Senate Assistant Majority Leader Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, who has scheduled a press conference Wednesday morning to talk about his decision.

If the opinion holds, it would mean the six would have to choose between their state jobs and their elected positions.

For now, Secretary of State Dean Heller, the state's chief election officer, has said he will allow the six legislators to file papers so they can run for office. It will be up to someone else to file suit against the candidates if they are elected, Heller said.

That didn't sit well with activist George Harris, who is coordinating a campaign to ban all public employees from serving in the Legislature.

Harris doesn't think Sandoval went far enough -- the attorney general also should have found that city and county employees cannot serve in the Legislature, he said.

Still, he said he thinks state employees serving in the Legislature should take immediate heed of Sandoval's ruling.

"Their legislative careers ended today," Harris said. "According to the attorney general of the state of Nevada, those folks can no longer serve."

Not everyone sees the need for the affected legislators to resign immediately.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, said his office has found that state employees should be able to serve in the Legislature. His office may disagree with the attorney general's office, but only a court can make a final ruling, he said.

"In both cases, it is just the opinion of the attorney on state law," Malkiewich said. "Until the court issues a ruling it is just that -- an opinion."

Still, Sandoval said the law is "crystal clear" that the separation of powers doctrine does not apply to local government employees being allowed to serve in the Legislature.

Titus said she disagrees with Sandoval's ruling on university employees, pointing out that when the state constitution was created, the university system didn't even exist. Universities are not part of the executive branch because they lie under the purview of the Board of Regents -- a separate elected body, she said.

"I cannot be fired or hired by the governor or by anybody that the governor can fire or hire," said Titus, the political science professor at UNLV. "So it's not like I really am an executive employee. I'm one step removed."

Most of the legislators affected on Monday expressed similar frustrations, while saying they will wait for someone to bring the issue to court.

Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, a recruiter for the Community College of Southern Nevada, said he has lived in his Assembly district for 22 years.

"To me, the area I represent is personal," said Manendo, who said all of his family and many of his friends live in his district.

Assemblyman Jason Geddes, R-Reno, environmental affairs manager for the University of Nevada, Reno, also said he intends to run for re-election. Geddes asked the Legislative Counsel Bureau if he could run for office and the bureau said he could. The attorney general criticized that opinion in his decision.

Assemblyman Ron Knecht, R-Carson City, said, "Unequivocally I intend to run for the Legislature, win and serve."

He said if he is forced out of his job as an economist for the state Public Utilities Commission, he can return to private practice, where he worked 15 years as a consultant.

Knecht said he wants to find out whether part-time teaching at the Western Nevada Community College in Carson City would also bar him from the Legislature.

He taught one night class at the college during the Legislature and was paid $1,710.

One candidate said he will continue to run for office, despite his employment with the Public Utilities Commission.

Moises Denis, a computer network technician running for Assembly District 28, said he will continue his campaign and think about private sector work if he wins the seat being vacated by Assemblywoman Vonne Chowning, D-North Las Vegas.

"I'd actually make more money in the private sector," said Denis, who has worked for the Public Utilities Commission for 10 years. "I kind of looked at working for the state as almost a way to give back to the community."

A spokesman for the attorney general's office said the opinion does not cover University of Nevada, Reno professor Howard Rosenberg, who is an elected member of the university system's Board of Regents. The spokesman said the opinion only addressed whether public employees can serve in the Legislature.

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