High court defies lawmakers on salaries

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008 | 2 a.m.

The Nevada Supreme Court has once again exerted its power to ignore the law.

A bill passed by the 2007 Legislature set the maximum salaries that can be paid to state employees, including those who work for the Supreme Court.

The court, however, says that law does not apply to it and has ordered the state’s payroll system to pay an annual salary of $135,240 to court administrator Ron Titus, effective immediately. The Legislature set that salary at $116,688, not including a 2 percent raise effective last July 1.

The court, in an order signed by all seven justices, says it “is vested with administrative control over its own affairs” under the Nevada Constitution. Beyond increasing some current employees’ salaries, the court plans to create positions not approved by the Legislature.

The court did the same thing with salaries in 1989.

With this year’s additional pay raises, the court will not exceed its overall budget.

According to the 2007 budget, Titus had an office with 18 employees.

With the Supreme Court’s order, Titus will be paid more than other state department directors in the executive branch who supervise hundreds if not thousands of employees and multitudes of programs.

For instance, Mike Willden, who oversees more than 5,200 employees as director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, will be paid $122,809. Directors of budget, taxation, employment and business and industry are paid the same amount as Willden and, like him, oversee far more employees than Titus.

The court, in its order, said the responsibilities of Titus and his staff “have increased substantially over the last 10 years.”

Other than physicians’, the only state salary that will exceed Titus’ is that of the chairman of the Gaming Control Board, Dennis Neilander, who will be paid $143,969 this fiscal year, which began July 1.

Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the Interim Finance Committee, which handles budget matters between sessions of the Legislature, wants the court “to tell us the justification” for the higher pay for its employees.

The Supreme Court’s action “puts a black eye on us,” Arberry said, referring to the legislative budget committees that set the salaries. Other agencies’ directors deserve bigger raises, but the money wasn’t available, he said.

He also said the court’s salary hikes reflect bad timing, coming as they do when state agencies have been ordered by Gov. Jim Gibbons to cut their budgets by 4.5 percent. The court has voluntarily agreed to reduce its budget by that amount.

Other court employees who will receive raises above those set by the Legislature include the deputy court administrators, whose annual pay will go from $102,792 to $113,608, lawyers (from $124,431 to $129,832) and the chief assistant clerk and reporter of judicial decisions (from $111,384 to $129,832).

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As judges hand out longer sentences, the average age of the prison population is rising.

Doing planning, Howard Skolnik, director of the state Department of Corrections, is looking at creating a geriatric prison.

Skolnik estimates there are hundreds if not thousands of elderly inmates.

The plan calls for converting the Florence McClure women’s prison in North Las Vegas to one that houses elderly inmates. The facility also would serve as an intake center for 250 inmates entering the prison system in Southern Nevada.

The women’s prison offers advantages in housing aging inmates. Close to hospitals and other medical care, it also is a one-floor facility, making it easier for prisoners in wheelchairs or with crutches, canes or walkers, he said.

Skolnik wants to build a women’s prison at Indian Springs in Southern Nevada. But with that facility only in planning, the possible transformation of the Florence McClure facility will be on hold in at least the near future.