Perkins’ interim aide raises controversy

Friday, March 11, 2005 | 11:35 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Legislators traditionally don't have taxpayer-paid staff assigned to them during the off-session, but Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, a potential candidate for governor next year, is at the center of a flap involving a paid assistant.

The 2003 Legislature set aside more than $99,000 for Perkins, D-Henderson, to hire an administrative assistant during the 18-month interim. Some members of the Senate Finance Committee are upset.

Nevada is billed as a citizen Legislature. After each session members return to their jobs without full-time legislative staff.

Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, said Thursday he doesn't recall, as a member of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, approving any secretarial help for the speaker. He said he was surprised to learn Perkins has had a paid assistant since 2003.

Sen. Bernice Mathews, D-Reno, said legislators never "had personal staff." She said she doesn't know how that slipped into the budget two years ago. She was a member of the Finance Committee that reviewed the budget.

Lawmakers say the money to continue paying the secretary for the coming two years was hidden in the upcoming budget of the Legislative Commission.

Mathews, who said she intends to vote against money to continue the position, questioned why every legislator doesn't get staff help.

Beers said Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, got through the 18 months without a state-paid assistant.

"I need to have some convincing done as to why the speaker needs to have a staffer" during the interim, Beers said.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, also a potential candidate for governor, said Raggio was offered but never accepted a paid assistant. She said the minority leaders were not considered for any staff help.

Perkins said it's important to have a staff member in the building while the Legislature isn't in session to help all Assembly members and members of the public who call.

"I think they should get a live body on the phone," he said.

The speaker said the Legislature authorized the hiring in 2003. He said Kathryn Alden was given the job but she only worked part-time to cut costs for the state. There was an appropriation of $65,715 for fiscal 2004 to cover salary, health insurance and retirement and $32,713 this fiscal year because Alden would be on the payroll of the Legislature as executive assistant to Perkins.

Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, estimated Alden drew about $46,000 last fiscal year in salary and the bills are not completed for this fiscal year.

Perkins said a 1999 survey of legislatures that meet every two years found that some leaders of those legislatures had staff during the interim. Oregon, he said, had seven staff members while Montana and North Dakota didn't have any.

The issue arose during a Wednesday meeting of the Senate Finance Committee when it was discovered that the continued staff member pay was buried under the fund for travel money for legislators to attend meetings.

Mathews said she could not find the position listed in the budget, and she wanted to know where it was.

Malkiewich said that since there were no line items for administrative aides in the Legislature's budget, he put the position in the travel budget. He said his budget for the administrative branch of the Legislative Counsel Bureau does not list each of his workers. He said there is only one employee for the Legislative Commission and that employee was included in the travel budget.

Malkiewich said the budget committees in 2003 were made aware that this position was in the budget.

"It's not something we're hiding," said Malkiewich.

Beers said he wants to find out what the administrative assistant did for Perkins during the interim.

Malkiewich said the suggestion that the Assembly speaker and the Senate majority leader should have a staff came from his office. It had been discussed for several years, and he said these two legislative leaders have many administrative duties during the interim, such as making appointments to boards or commissions.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, backed Perkins, saying it's important to have somebody in the office when the public calls.