Letter: Civil servants’ over-the-top pay is troubling

Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2007 | 7:06 a.m.

I really become alarmed when I read that large numbers of lower-level and midrange civil servants in Southern Nevada are being compensated at much higher levels than our elected officials. Our local, state and national officials have far more influence upon our well-being.

Anyone residing in Nevada for several years and who has not been in a coma during all that time should not be shocked by the over-the-top pay given to many civil servants here. You would think that the Las Vegas Sun's Feb. 18 front page article, highlighting low-level and midrange government employees who were paid nearly $200,000 and more last year, was just cherry picking from the masses. If you thought this you would be wrong.

The cherry tree was full of fruit. But was it the honest fruit of labor? Well, just look at the Sun's example of Carl Nelson. Mr. Nelson reportedly earned $232,791 as an emergency medical services supervisor. This amount was his base pay plus 2,400 hours of overtime pay. By my calculation, Mr. Nelson would have worked a total of 4,480 hours out of a total of 8,736 hours during the year. Based upon a seven-day work week and with no time off for holidays, sickness, lunch and dinner hours or vacation, Mr. Nelson would, at best, have only 11 hours and 42 minutes remaining in each day for sleeping, eating and personal matters. Such dedication!

The list provided by the Sun also includes employees from other notable departments like Metro Police Department and the Las Vegas Fire Department. Does anyone still wonder why Metro and these other departments claim they cannot find and recruit more workers? Hint - it isn't the pay. You don't suppose adding significantly more personnel just might cut into their overtime pay and generous retirement benefits, now would it?

Richard Rychtarik, Las Vegas