LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Friday, Dec. 28, 2007 | 7:19 a.m.

CARSON CITY - While all the other constitutional offices were open in the State Capitol on Monday afternoon, Gov. Jim Gibbons' office was dark.

There were no employees in the governor's main office or in the annex after about noon on Christmas Eve.

Nevada law requires all state offices to maintain a 40-hour workweek and be open from 8 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. every day except Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.

The law also specifies that if an office has more than one person on staff, it must remain open through the noon hour.

A telephone call to the governor's office Monday afternoon got the answering service, directing the caller to call back "during office hours."

There apparently is no penalty for failing to follow the law on keeping the office open.

The offices of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, Secretary of State Ross Miller, Treasurer Kate Marshall, Controller Kim Wallin and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto were staffed throughout Monday.

It's going to be a crowded courtroom in Las Vegas when holders of lifetime charter memberships in the Stallion Mountain Country Club square off against owner Bill Walters.

Twenty-six unhappy members have filed three civil suits against Walters, accusing him of breach of contract and other allegations.

The Nevada Supreme Court rejected a motion by Walters' attorneys to schedule three separate trials.

The charter members say they purchased their lifetime memberships from the former owners of the then-Sunrise Golf Club for $35,000 to $63,750 with the understanding that there always would be three championship courses.

Their suits allege that when Walters bought the property and changed the name to Stallion Mountain Country Club he sold two of the courses and allowed the other to deteriorate from lack of maintenance. The suits also charge that Walters, by pricing memberships at $250,000 and establishing a transfer fee of $62,500, effectively made the memberships unmarketable.

Walters contends he was under no obligation to provide 54 holes of golf and that, as owner, he has the right to make changes "from time to time."

Las Vegas hospitals fear their emergency rooms will be crowded with an influx of mentally ill patients with the closure of WestCare's crisis unit after its state contract expired.

"The emergency rooms will be getting the overflow and that will be quite a challenge for the hospitals to respond to," said Bill Welch, director of the Nevada Hospital Association.

The crunch occurs during the holiday season, when more regular patients typically arrive at emergency rooms for treatment.

Mentally ill patients in Las Vegas hospital emergency rooms waiting to be transferred to the state's Rawson-Neal mental hospital create longer waits for other patients, Welch said.

But Carlos Brandenburg, who heads the state's mental health division, said the state has been taking steps to minimize any problems. The daily average number of mentally ill patients waiting in emergency rooms during December to date is 27, he said.

The state has hired staff that worked at WestCare, including technicians, psychiatrists and nurses, he said. The state will set aside 22 beds at an old closed mental hospital in Las Vegas to care for former WestCare patients, he added.

WestCare, a 50-bed community triage center, operated a 22-bed mental health crisis unit under contract with the state, caring for mentally ill patients until they could be placed or evaluated and given treatment.

WestCare President Dick Steinberg said the crisis unit stopped accepting new mental clients as of noon Monday to prepare for next Monday's closure.

Brandenburg said all 246 beds at Rawson-Neal hospital are filled with mentally ill patients.

Gov. Jim Gibbons placed a freeze on hiring new state workers because of the state's budget shortfall. But Brandenburg said he has received permission to hire extra staff for the 22-bed unit at the old mental hospital, which he hopes to open by Feb. 1.

Welch, though, is not that optimistic, saying he "doesn't see it opening at any time in the foreseeable future" because of staffing problems.

Welch also predicts that as many as 70 to 90 mental patients a day could be backed up in hospital emergency rooms after WestCare closes.

Brandenburg, though, noted that as of Wednesday morning, only nine mentally ill patients were awaiting transfer from hospital emergency rooms.