Las Vegas: It will cost employees to be lawmakers

Thursday, May 20, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

The Las Vegas City Council says city employees should be allowed to hold state offices, but they will have to pay a price -- the paychecks and other benefits of their city jobs -- while serving in that role.

The council, by a 6-0 vote, directed the city manager's office Wednesday to craft a plan that will allow city employees to run for offices such as the state Assembly, but only under stringent restrictions that include not being paid for the 120 days they serve in the Legislature.

Attorney General Brian Sandoval, at the request of Secretary of State Dean Heller, has asked the Nevada Supreme Court whether local government employees should be defined as as executive branch workers.

Sandoval has already issued an opinion that university and community college workers and other state employees are barred from legislative service because the state constitution mandates separation of the executive and legislative branches of government.

The city council could have barred its own workers from keeping their municipal jobs if they served as lawmakers, but the council opted not to.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, along with council members Gary Reese, Lawrence Weekly, Larry Brown and Michael Mack, said they do not want to take away from city employees the privilege of serving the people.

One city employee, Ricki Barlow, Weekly's liaison officer, has filed to run as a Democrat in Assembly District 1.

The issue was scheduled for the council's March agenda, but was delayed a couple of times while the panel waited for a Supreme Court ruling.

However, Goodman and other council members decided Wednesday it was in the city's best interest to begin the process of creating a policy.

City Manager Doug Selby's office will craft a list of restrictions and limitations that would govern city workers who serve in the Legislature, based and return the proposals to the council for approval.

The restrictions discussed Wednesday would require city workers to take a 120-day leave of absence without pay and benefits while serving in the Legislature, allow them to keep their health insurance as long as they pay for it themselves and require them to take vacation days or a leave of absence -- but not sick days -- for post-legislative committee meetings.

The rules would also spell out additional duties for department heads who oversee legislators on their city jobs and require the bosses to take disputes and other problems to the city manager for action.

One contentious point is whether to require those restrictions to kick in at the time the employees file for office or if and when they win.

Goodman said the restrictions should apply at the time they file because their campaigns could take away from their duties at the city. Reese said the restrictions should apply after they win the seat.

The issue of the legality of city employees holding office came about in the wake of the controversy over former city employee and Assemblyman Wendell Williams, fired after the city discovered he collected pay for his job in the Neighborhood Services Department while serving in the 2003 Legislature.

As a result, the city implemented a policy that employees who are on leave without pay cannot be given city assignments and cannot use any city equipment.

Brown said the Williams matter "taught the city some lessons" about employees manipulating the system and "the system being so weak it was taken advantage of." He said with safeguards in place, city workers could hold state office.

Weekly said the Williams incident cost him his friendship with Williams, a man he called "a friend and a mentor." Still, Weekly said, "anyone of good heart" who works for the city should be allowed to hold state office as long as there are "strict boundaries to avoid the appearance of impropriety."

Weekly said Barlow most likely will have to resign from his position that requires him to work with Weekly's constituents. Selby was asked to explore whether the policy could include allowing people in Barlow's situation to find another job at a similar level in city government.

Goodman said he bounced "back and forth," noting he wanted everyone to have the right to run for office but did not want a repeat of the Williams incident and potential "double dipping" by city employees while they were working at the Legislature.