City worker-state legislator solution eludes LV Council

Sito Negron

Thursday, March 18, 2004 | 11:16 a.m.

Las Vegas officials will try for a fourth time to come up with a policy to deal with employees who are elected as state lawmakers, after deciding Wednesday to postpone the discussion until April 7.

Councilwoman Lynette Boggs McDonald cast the only vote against postponing the issue and argued strongly that the only way to truly prevent conflicts of interest was to tell employees that if elected, they had to choose between their job and their office.

Using the example of the arbitration process, which Mayor Oscar Goodman has said he wants to change because of a recent issue involving the city marshals' contract, Boggs McDonald said that any change to the state law governing the process would have to be approved by the Legislature.

Among those the city might have to persuade to allow a change to make it easier to deal with employee unions might be a member of such a union, presenting a conflict for the legislator, she said.

The councilwoman also said politicians have heard about giving employee lawmakers a "wink and a nod" before sending them off to the legislative session.

Goodman said that's what he would do if city employees serve in the Legislator. He has said a ban on employees serving in office makes sense, but he also does not want to be at a disadvantage with other cities that allow their employees to serve.

In what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to persuade her colleagues to support her position, Boggs McDonald then threw the issue to City Manager Doug Selby, asking him his opinion.

Selby said he would do whatever ordered by the council, but appeared to support Boggs McDonald when he said that it's a "major challenge" to develop a policy that protects the city's interest while allowing employees to serve in the Legislature.

He also said that the city has pared its workforce, and it's difficult to deal with losing an employee for the 120 days of Legislature, as well as interim committee assignments.

Tommy Ricketts, president of the union that represents about 1,500 city workers, said their contract allows the city to terminate employees only for "just cause." He questioned whether it would be legal under that contract to fire employees who become elected officials.

The issue was raised because of the firing of Assemblyman Wendell Williams, a former city employee who was paid for time he claimed to have worked on city affairs while serving in the 2003 Legislature.

Several other lawmakers who work in local governments received money from their main jobs while serving in the Legislature. Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson and Assemblywoman Kathy McClain were fired from their Clark County jobs after managers there concluded they improperly used sick days while the Legislature was in session.

Assemblyman John Oceguera, a firefighter in North Las Vegas, also received pay, but said he did it through trading shifts with fellow firefighters.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, a Henderson deputy police chief, received pay while in the Legislature, but his city did not question his work record. While not mentioning him by name, Goodman referred to a bitter battle in the Legislature in 2001 over how to divide tax receipts among governments in the valley that Perkins led and that ended up favoring Henderson.