LOOKING IN ON: CARSON CITY

Monday, March 12, 2007 | 7:37 a.m.

CARSON CITY - There are sub rosa talks among state senators about removing the Clark County Commission as manager of the debt-ridden University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Lawmakers are considering converting it to a not-for-profit venture, similar to the major hospital in Reno.

"You have people who are governing the hospital who are not health care experts," Sen. Maurice Washington, R-Sparks, chairman of the Senate Human Resources and Education Committee, said in reference to the Clark County Commission.

But there will be stiff opposition. Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani calls the not-for-profit idea an overreaction. "We have to have an opportunity to clean it up," she said.

And Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said Clark County Manager Virginia Valentine "seems to be getting a handle on it."

Assembly Minority Leader and physician Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, said he doesn't anticipate UMC legislation this session, but thinks a separate hospital board should provide daily oversight of the hospital. The county should still be responsible for the hospital, he said.

A consultant has suggested several options that might help stanch the growing debt at UMC, including turning it over to a nonprofit organization, establishing an advisory board of medical experts to lend advice, creating a hospital district, selling the hospital or expanding its operations.

Sen. Joe Heck, R-Henderson, who also is a physician, said, "We're trying to weigh the pros and cons of either allowing the (county) commission to take the path they deem appropriate or is it at the point where the Legislature needs to get involved, especially with the mounting deficit."

Washington said he wants to talk to the Clark County Commission "real soon" and will consider introducing a bill after all the options are explored. But the County Commission has the authority to make any change without the Legislature. It is only barred from selling UMC without legislative approval.

The head of Nevada's parole and probation division says his agency has failed the District Courts in Clark County.

The chief judge of the District Court in Clark County says the result is clogged court calendars and stacking of inmates in the county jail.

Gov. Jim Gibbons' budget doesn't address the issue, which was discussed last week at the Assembly Select Committee on Corrections, Parole and Probation.

Chief District Judge Kathy Hardcastle complained the state Parole and Probation Division was underfunded and understaffed and could not provide presentence reports used by judges in determining punishment for violators.

Without these reports, judges face a hardship in making an adequate decision on the sentence, Hardcastle said.

As a temporary solution, the state division and the courts agreed that a presentence report on a person charged with a gross misdemeanor would be waived. And there would be no report on a nonviolent offender if a presentence report was done on the individual in the last five years.

But Hardcastle told the committee this could not continue. Adding three people to the presentence reports program will not cure the problem and, "It is causing backups in the court and in the jail."

John Gonska, chief of the parole and probation division, conceded he has "failed the District Courts" in not providing these reports. But he said he's short of staff.

He needs 10 more employees in addition to the three in the budget. Even with those 10 added workers, Gonska said he "would not be able to produce a great presentence report" but it would be adequate.

To beef up the division, Gibbons has recommended increasing the budget this fiscal year of $41.6 million to $51.1 million in 2008-09. But that doesn't include the 10 extra specialists to write these presentence reports. Instead there is a recommendation for an interim study to determine how long it should take to prepare one of these reports.