Beers, peers at odds over term limit case

By Cy Ryan

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

State Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, is leading a campaign to persuade the Nevada Supreme Court to retain term limits for public officials.

He has cautioned the justices they may not be reelected if they vote to invalidate the constitutional amendment passed twice by voters.

But Beers may be out of step with the higher-ups in the Nevada Legislature who are arguing the term limits votes were invalid because the question was misleading and did not inform voters of the consequences.

The court has set aside 90 minutes Monday to hear arguments on whether to toss out the term limits that voters made part of the Nevada Constitution.

The term limit amendment was approved by 70 percent of voters in 1994 and by 54 percent in 1996. It limits state senators and Assembly members to 12 years in office; state elective officials to two terms or eight years; and state officials and local government officials to 12 years.

Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, authorized attorneys for the Legislature to file a “friend of the court” brief arguing that the term limit constitutional amendment is invalid. He took the action as chairman of the bi-partisan Legislative Commission that handles business for the Legislature before session.

The brief said voters weren’t informed of the types of officials who would be affected by term limits. For instance, do the term limits apply to the nonpartisan state Board of Education and the Board of Regents of the university system?

“Without an adequate definition or explanation in the initiative, the average voters could only have guessed as to the meaning and scope of the limits,” the brief said.

The amendment also was unclear whether it applied to a lifetime ban on running for the office after the term limits kicked in the first time, the brief said.

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State workers got their 4 percent cost-of-living raises despite budget cuts, but some Nevada correctional officers may get a 5 percent pay cut July 21.

Corrections Director Howard Skolnik wants to eliminate the extra 5 percent that 450 prison workers earn on the swing and graveyard shifts. Cutting “shift differential” would save an estimated $700,000, he says.

That has the state workers union upset, saying Skolnik didn’t provide documentation to justify the cut.

Dennis Mallory, chief of staff in the local office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, says employees bid for those shifts and they fashion their lives around them.

But Skolnik says it was either cut the shift differential or close another prison camp.

“I didn’t want to close another camp. I didn’t have time to meet with staff. I’m out of options,” he said, adding he made the decisions and “this is not a democratic decision.”

He outlined his cost-cutting proposals Tuesday to the state Prison Commission, which delayed a decision until October. He has to cut more than $85 million as part of the reductions by state government to balance the budget.

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A legislative subcommittee is asking the Nevada Supreme Court to give increased prominence to the business courts in Reno and Las Vegas in deciding thorny issues of business law.

The 2007 Legislature created the subcommittee to examine the benefits, costs and creation of a court of chancery or business in Nevada.

The subcommittee, headed by Sen. Bob Beers, couldn’t get a majority Tuesday to push a constitutional amendment to create a system of business courts in Nevada instead of relying on the rules of the Supreme Court. Instead it will write a letter to the Supreme Court asking it to direct these business courts to issue written opinions. It also will write to Gov. Jim Gibbons and the legislative money committee to fund publishing the courts’ opinions.

The subcommittee backed a suggestion by Assemblyman Tick Segerblom, D-Las Vegas, to raise fees for corporation filings as one source of revenue.