Monday, June 20, 2005 | 11:05 a.m.
The daughter of North Las Vegas Councilwoman Shari Buck has been hired as a summer intern earning $12 an hour in the city's Police Department in a position that North Las Vegas Police Chief Mark Paresi said he created specifically for her.
But Paresi also said that his hiring of Jenna Buck, a 19-year-old junior sociology student at BYU, as the first paid intern in the department, isn't politically motivated. Rather, he said it's part of a new outreach and recruiting tool by creating internships to encourage North Las Vegas youths to pursue a career in law enforcement.
Jenna Buck, whose grandfather James Avance is the former chief of police in North Las Vegas, has interest in becoming a detective, crime scene investigator or victims advocate, according to her mother.
Paresi said he's trying to do what's best for the department. Nine percent of the officers are female, well below the department's goal of 25 percent.
Paresi said he sees nothing unethical with granting the internship to the daughter of a councilwoman who has control over his department's budget. He said someone studying sociology and other subjects dealing with people can have a career in law enforcement just as easy as someone studying criminal justice.
"The young lady brought an asset, and I made a business decision," said Paresi, who has been chief for three years. "There was no influence by anybody or anything exerted on me for any favors. I am not here to provide people a summer job. I looked at it from a business aspect of future potential employees and making an investment for them to take a look at us."
Councilwoman Buck said she has no problem with her daughter working for the city. When the chief suggested the internship, she said she immediately went to City Manager Gregory Rose, who said it didn't violate any rules or policy.
"She is so far removed from me, and I don't even know where she is working day-to-day," Buck said. "An intern is not even considered an employee."
Buck's daughter started her internship in early June working as an observer and aide in crime scene investigation. She will also work in the community services division that deals with Neighborhood Watch and community policing and in the victims advocates office, said police spokesman Tim Bedwell.
The job will last into August, but Bedwell said he's uncertain when it will end. Buck works 36 hours a week, and her pay was set by the human resources department and is based on her education level, Bedwell said.
The hiring goes back several weeks to a conversation Paresi said he had with Councilwoman Buck about their children in college, and she mentioned how her daughter was looking for a summer job. During the conversation, Councilwoman Buck told the chief her daughter studied sociology and victimization, and Paresi said he suggested Buck's daughter contact him about an internship.
North Las Vegas Human Resources Director Ali Freeman said hiring Jenna Buck without a competitive process didn't violate the city's civil service rules because it's a temporary position without any benefits. He said Buck could work for the city as long as she's not under the direct supervision of a family member.
Rose said he left it up to the police and other departments to determine its needs in filling internships. He said he understands the scrutiny but nobody did anything wrong.
"It is commendable that the chief decided to pursue this despite the potential attention it would get. He was looking at the needs of the department," Rose said.
Bedwell said there are two ways to look at the situation.
"Some might say this is wrong because she is the councilperson's daughter. But should she be eliminated because she is the councilperson's daughter?" he said. "Reaching out and bringing in a councilperson's daughter raises some eyebrows, but he (the chief) was willing to withstand the storm. She was a good fit for the position. There were no back door things. Everything was on the up and up."
Having paid interns, however, isn't standard practice among law enforcement departments in the Las Vegas area and elsewhere in Nevada.
Metro Police use an application process and background check to select three to four unpaid interns per semester. The program primarily targets juniors or higher who are criminal justice majors but will make exceptions for those studying sociology or psychology, officials said.
Henderson allows but rarely uses paid interns in its departments, said Ted Cooper, the city's manager of employment compensation. Any internship would have to be tied specifically to a college course for earning credit, he said.
Ron Dreher, the government affairs director for the Nevada Peace Officers Research Association, said it's common for police departments to bring in college interns, but it's normally done through a competitive process.
Hiring a council member's child without competition and paying them creates the appearance of a conflict and creates animosity among officers and staff, Dreher said. Many in law enforcement have family members who would like the chance to work as paid interns, he said.
"Twelve dollars an hour is a lot of money," Dreher said. "It's difficult to get a $12-an-hour job in the Reno area."
Bedwell said practices of other departments shouldn't be the standard of North Las Vegas. He said the city is starting a new model and hopes law enforcement support this philosophy.
It's a model that a frequent critic of the city said shouldn't include hiring the daughter of a councilwoman. George Harris, chairman of Nevadans for Sound Government, an anti-tax group that monitors North Las Vegas spending, said it smacks of favoritism and nepotism and accused Paresi of trying to help his department get what it wants during budget time.
"That is why he did it," Harris said. "He will never say that and not conscientiously believe that is why, but any psychologist on this planet will say that's why he approved her to be paid while her mother is a councilwoman. The daughter might be the nicest person in the world, but it's the mother's responsibility to understand it stinks. The daughter should seek employment elsewhere. She (Shari Buck) shouldn't put herself and her daughter in that position."
Harris said it also sends a message to residents that the field isn't open when it comes to getting a job or internship with the city.
Councilwoman Buck said she's not worried about the public perception because of the step she took to make sure it didn't violate city policy. She said any future votes on the department's proposed budget will have no relationship to her daughter getting an internship.
"You try to remove yourself from those things in that situation," Buck said.
Bedwell said the department doesn't want Councilwoman Buck to think she owes the department.
"We are not asking for anything, and she is not saying she will provide anything," Bedwell said.
Rose said the hiring of Buck is part of an effort by the city to get not only college students but high school students more interested in working for North Las Vegas after they graduate from college.
North Las Vegas has created a summer teen internship program for high school students to give them a glimpse of municipal government, said Human Resources Director Ali Freeman. Twenty to 30 junior and seniors at Mohave High School with a grade point average of 2.5 or above will start working later this month in various departments and earning $8 to $9 an hour. The students selected were among dozens who applied and were interviewed for the positions, he said.
The police department has hired six high school students as summer interns who will start work next week as aides in various divisions such as resource management, training, records, detention and dispatch, Bedwell said.
Those high school interns were tabbed by supervisors out of the department's cadet program, where aspiring volunteers work crowd control and various events in their pursuit of a law enforcement career, Bedwell said.
"This is our first opportunity to do this, and we wanted to give them a practical application of being a police officer," Paresi said of the internships. "It is a great recruiting opportunity and a chance to expose young people to policing."
Last fall, the city hired six cadets to full-time positions, earning more than $30,000 a year, in which they take reports from the public at two police stations. The hirings are expected to encourage cadets to become police officers, Bedwell said.
Buck said her daughter will graduate in the spring and is excited about the prospect of pursuing a career in law enforcement. She said that interest in police work runs in the family, and she encourages her daughter to pursue her dream.
"She is enjoying it. This is what she would like to do," Buck said. "We always want to spark this interest in kids in public service."
Other than Buck, no other North Las Vegas council members have children and family members who work for the city, officials said.
Mayor Mike Montandon said Buck didn't exert any influence to help her daughter. He said he understands why such a hiring can create a bad public appearance, especially if someone were edged out for a job. The mayor said he will discuss the matter with his colleagues to see if there are any concerns that need to be addressed in the future.
All area cities, including North Las Vegas, have policies restricting members of a family to hire or supervise another family member. None prevent a council member's family member or relative from working for a city.
In Henderson, Andrew Hafen, the son of Councilman Andy Hafen, has worked since May 2004 in a part-time position as an explorer in the city's fire department. The job, which is filled after taking applications, pays $9.50 an hour. The explorers work eight hours two to three days a week in assisting firefighters.
Mike Cyphers, the husband of Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers, works as the city's emergency management coordinator.
The only city in the valley from which the Sun could not obtain specific information about relatives being on the payrolls was Las Vegas. Las Vegas city spokeswoman Diana Paul said she didn't know if any family members or relatives of council members worked for the city and that she couldn't research the matter for the Sun because, she said, the Sun would need to provide her with specific names for her to give to the city human resources department.
Paul sent out an e-mail late last week to the council passing on the Sun's request. Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian's office was the only to respond by deadline. Her assistant said Tarkanian's son-in-law Erik King works for the city and has been employed since 1986. He worked in the neighborhood services department.
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