Two bosses, two paychecks, possible conflict

Tony Cook and Marshall Allen

Saturday, April 7, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

Former Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who in her 2004 reelection directed more than $356,000 in campaign funds to her 21-year-old son, future daughter-in-law and their company, also boosted her county assistant's salary with more than $46,000 in political donations in that race.

In 2003 and 2004, Atkinson Gates paid Donna Sawyer, her assistant at the county, $46,725 in campaign contributions for expenses related to volunteers. Sawyer, a full-time Clark County employee since 1993, earned $62,670 from her county job in 2004.

County policy bars employees from outside employment unless it has been approved by a department head after an analysis shows there is no conflict of interest.

Contacted by phone, Sawyer refused to say whether she had filed a disclosure form for her work on Atkinson Gates' campaign.

Clark County Human Resources Director Raymond Visconti, saying the matter is a confidential personnel issue, would not confirm whether Sawyer had submitted the required form .

It is highly unusual for elected officials' public staffers to simultaneously be on their campaign payrolls, primarily because of the potential conflict of interest .

If an individual draws a campaign salary while on the public payroll, there are inevitable questions about whether he or she is acting in a political or governmental capacity at any given time.

To avoid that problem, elected officials' aides typically volunteer their evening and weekend hours to work on their bosses' campaigns, or take a leave of absence from their public job to devote themselves to the campaigns.

Gary Gray, a veteran local Democratic political consultant, said campaign payments to an elected official's publicly paid staffer, especially in the amounts that Sawyer received, are uncommon.

"In the races I've worked on, I haven't seen it," he said.

On Sunday, the Sun reported that of the $749,136 Atkinson Gates spent in her landslide 2004 reelection, $356,166 was paid to Brian Atkinson Turner ; Kathryn O'Gara, who married Turner in March 2005 ; and the couple's company, Advibe Advertising.