Some state workers enjoy two salaries

Thursday, June 22, 2006 | 7:10 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Nevada Adjutant General Cynthia Kirkland earns $100,000-plus a year from the state.

While continuing to draw her state salary, she also earns about $30,000 to $40,000 a year from the federal government when she performs federal duties.

And it's all apparently proper, a legal case of double-dipping.

With a 4-percent pay raise for state workers going into effect July 1, Kirkland, a brigadier general who heads the Nevada National Guard, will earn about $110,000 a year from the state. That salary will be supplemented when she is called to federal meetings, maneuvers or other duties.

A 1984 legal opinion from the state attorney general's office said the law does not prohibit the adjutant general from receiving federal military pay while drawing a state salary.

And for the past two decades, those who have held the position of adjutant general have enjoyed the dual pay.

Bill Chisel, chief of the Division of Internal Audits, confirmed that an audit has been conducted of the adjutant general's office.

"We asked around on that issue," he said, referring to the double-dipping. When the attorney general's opinion was uncovered, "we didn't pursue it further," he added.

Nevada law says any public officer or state worker called to duty with the National Guard or the Reserves can receive up to 15 days of state pay while also getting his or her federal pay.

Kirkland, who estimates that she earns up to $40,000 a year extra from the federal government, stressed that she does not receive military leave or the benefits that a typical state employee receives.

"I don't get comp time or overtime," she said. "I'm considered on the state payroll 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

Giles Vanderhoof, former adjutant general and now state homeland security director, said there was nothing wrong with the double pay. In addition to the state attorney general's office opinion, a federal ruling takes the same position on the question.

Coincidentally, Kirkland's husband was the subject of a flap when Gov. Kenny Guinn allowed him to draw both his $101,000 salary as the director of the state Department of Public Safety and his $70,000 retirement from Washoe County, where he served as sheriff.

A bill was introduced in the 2003 Legislature to prevent officials from drawing both public salaries and public retirement benefits, but it died in a Senate committee.