Council to consider policy in wake of AG ruling

Sito Negron

Tuesday, March 2, 2004 | 9:45 a.m.

The attorney general's ruling on public employees in the Legislature clears the way for the Las Vegas City Council to consider a policy on how to deal with employees who are elected officials, a discussion that could happen by the March 17 council meeting.

"We can go all the way from the status quo to basically a prohibition," said City Manager Doug Selby, who in the fall issued a directive clarifying leave without pay policy in the wake of a scandal involving a former city employee who is a lawmaker.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams eventually was fired after an audit determined he claimed hours he could not justify, and the city implemented a policy that employees who are on leave without pay cannot be given city assignments and cannot use any city equipment.

"What I sent out was really specific to the issue of leave without pay, and wasn't tied to legislative service or any other kind of service," Selby said.

However, it does point the way to one potential policy, which would allow city employees to serve as state lawmakers but would require them to take vacation or unpaid leave while on their elected jobs.

Another possibility would be to allow employees to run, and if they're elected require them to make a choice between their job and their office.

That's the position taken by Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald, who said she expects the issue to be resolved in the courts.

She said Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval's opinion relies heavily on California, upon which Nevada based its constitution and which has established case law on the issue. But a key difference in Nevada is that cities are more limited in powers than those in California.

In Nevada, cities must go to the state for permission on numerous issues, like setting tax rates.

"There's not one (department) director of the city of Las Vegas who wants to be an immediate supervisor of an elected state legislator," Boggs McDonald said. "You have someone who is one minute your subordinate, and in odd years you're testifying before them."

She said that the city does need to move quickly, to allow any employee who is considering a run time to campaign.

"I think it's fair that they should know whether or not they have to resign their city position if they are successful," Boggs McDonald said.

Mayor Oscar Goodman agreed with his council colleague that the city should move quickly to determine a policy.

"Anyone who's running should have all the cards on the table before they run," he said.

Goodman would not disclose how he would vote on the issue, but he repeated Monday his comments that if other government bodies have employees who serve in the Legislature, and the city of Las Vegas does not, it puts the city at a disadvantage.

He said a key issue that has not been addressed is the "incompatibility principle," which he described as "a tenet in law that states a person may hold more than one position in government as long as the (positions) are not legally incompatible."

"That is something we as a council have to talk about," he said.