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StumbleGovernor balks at shift of stimulus authority
Chief of staff’s comments ratchet up turf battle with legislators on oversight
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Gov. Jim Gibbons
Robin Reedy
Power Struggle
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del.icio.usSun Archives
- Gibbons ready to tear at legislative patch (8-9-2009)
- Legislature reins in Gibbons; Democrats cite incompetence (8-5-2009)
- Committee vote delays $10M in stimulus money (8-3-2009)
- Democrats reject Gibbons' 'stimulus czar' proposal (8-3-2009)
- State board OKs $509,000 request for stimulus ‘czar’ staff (7-28-2009)
Sun Coverage
Gov. Jim Gibbons isn’t giving up his authority over federal stimulus money for Nevada, despite the state Legislature’s desire to shift responsibility for tracking the money.
The governor’s budget office — not someone in a job created by the Legislature — will coordinate use of the $2.2 billion in federal stimulus money coming to Nevada, Robin Reedy, Gibbons’ chief of staff, said Tuesday.
The Legislature wants the money to be handled by a coordinator in the state controller’s office.
“The controller can lick the stamp,” Reedy said. “The governor is not going to abdicate his authority.”
Reedy’s comments intensified a turf battle between the Democratic majority in the Legislature and Gibbons, a Republican.
The dispute began after Gibbons sought to create the position of “stimulus czar,” at a salary of $120,000 a year. He wanted the job to be nonclassified, which would have meant he could have appointed anyone he wanted, regardless of qualifications.
Legislators balked, given Gibbons’ past penchant for controversial appointments.
Legislators cut the proposed salary, scaled back the duties and required the state to fill the job through regular personnel hiring procedures to ensure that the winning applicant is qualified.
Gibbons contends that legislators overstepped their authority.
The duties of the job are fundamentally those of accounting. Someone in the state needs to report to the federal government by Oct. 10 on how the stimulus money is being used, department by department.
Reedy’s comments brought strong reactions from lawmakers.
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said the dispute was devolving into a “schoolyard fight.”
“This is very troubling to me,” she said. “The governor’s office said they don’t want to slow the process down, yet they don’t want to provide information to the controller. We need to work together and move this forward.”
State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said, “What we should be doing right now is handling the state’s business in a professional way that gets the job done. Unfortunately, because the governor didn’t get his way, things have become quite petty in the governor’s office.”
Gibbons’ attempt to create a “stimulus czar” position at the Cabinet level required approval by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. That body, controlled by Democrats, rejected the proposal. Instead, legislators reduced the job responsibilities and placed the position under state Controller Kim Wallin, a Democrat and a state elected official who is responsible for tracking all state spending.
Republicans opposed the idea. Nonetheless, Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said he believed the governor’s office is required to follow the vote of the Interim Finance Committee.
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the vote,” Townsend said. “Whether it was a political vote or not, the vote is the vote. It doesn’t have a ‘p’ after it to identify it as a political vote.”
Wallin said her office has been working with the governor’s previous deputy chief of staff, Mendy Elliot, on the stimulus spending. Elliot, who had been the stimulus expert in the office, abruptly left the governor’s employ last month after he gave the chief of staff job to Reedy.
Wallin said the federal reporting requirements direct each state department to file compliance forms to its federal equivalent department and the federal Office of Management and Budget.
“It’s clear to me the governor’s office does not understand reporting requirements,” Wallin said.
If the money isn’t correctly tracked and reported, the federal government could take unspent money earmarked for the state and send it elsewhere, she said.
“The governor is jeopardizing the future of the citizens of Nevada,” Wallin said. “Politics aside, we need to work together.”
Wallin has not filled the job but she said she plans to do so as early as next week.
“I’ll continue to work with agencies on reporting requirements,” she said.
Reedy maintained that the administration will handle the compliance and oversight provisions in the federal stimulus.
But so far, the budget office does not have authority to create a new position, and Reedy conceded that the office “does not have enough existing staff to accomplish the task.” But, she said, “it’s the governor’s priority to make sure no funds are held up.”
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With government officials involved, the budget will be wasted somehow ... so I like this idea. In fact, Bring in a CFO and COO from a private business and let them decide the budget. That way the money isn't wasted in pork-programs.
There is nowhere in the Nevada's Constitution where it empowers a small group of legislative members to "vote" and pass budgets or laws that is imposed on the state.
Only the full legislature can vote on such matters.
This is an unconstitution act.
I did not elect my representatives to sit on their butts and turn over the voting rights to other legislative members.
If they do that then they need to resign and let somebody else do their job.
If our lawmakers and elected officials spent less time bickering like children they would have more time to do what they were elected to do.
What difference does it make who's office it's in. With these idiots in charge I am sure it will find a way to line someones pocket.
Next election, get rid of all of them and start over. Don't vote for anyone who has previously elected or worked in any government office.
It's time for a DO OVER.
who is more pathetic...
jimmie boy gibbons...
or...
jonnhie boy ensign...
hmmm...
close call...
both are poor poor terribly misguided republican clowns...
both have skeletons in their closet...
hmmm...
jimmie boy gibbons...
has no friends...
has no respect...
acts like a little little child whenever he comes out to play...
acted like a little little child with our great president...
acting like a little little child now with the legislature...
a sad clown to be sure...
johnnie boy ensign...
slept with his best friend/senior staffer's wife...
while a member of that hyper religious cult the "family"...
then ran to mommy and daddy to fix his boo boo...
a sad clown to be sure...
bottom line...
our poor poor terrinly misguided republican friends...
sad clowns all!!!
Gibbons didn't have a problem with the Interim Finance Committee when he was a state Assemblyman.
He didn't have a problem with the committee in 2007.
But now that they do something he doesn't like, suddenly he's at the rails shouting about it?
Awfully convenient...
I have a feeling that if Gibbons is in control, much of that stimulus money will be going to stimulate RV dealerships in Reno and strip clubs.
tannsummers, ha! Yeah, because CFO's and COO's always spend wisely and never divert public money to their own private benefit. What planet are you living on?
The constitution must be preserved even when we don't like the results. There is nothing giving a committee the authority to pass laws let alone change the balance between the legislative branch and the executive.
Like the courts trying to take over the prosecution duties of the executive, this is wrong, regardless of the results. Preservation of the law must be of primary concern or we end up with something like the Obama speak going on in Washington.
The committe does not have a legal leg to stand on.
The Gov can just ignore any votes by the committee.
Only the full legislative can vote on matters that have legal standing on the state.
"Only the full legislative can vote on matters that have legal standing on the state."
Until the Nevada Supreme Court says otherwise, Gibbons opposes the IFC at his own peril.
And again, why didn't he move on this when he was a State Assemblyman? Or when he was first elected governor?
His sudden outrage is too convenient. It doesn't pass the smell test.
"Until the Nevada Supreme Court says otherwise, Gibbons opposes the IFC at his own peril."
No he is not at peril.
He can ignore them.
They can file suit with the Supreme Court.
However, they will not be able to cite or reference anything in the Nevada Constitution to support their position.
"They can file suit with the Supreme Court."
Did you fail civics class or something?
There is a law on the books - until that law is overturned, it is enforced.
Gibbons would have to file the suit challenging their authority. The IFC has the presumption that the law is valid and enforceable on the governor.
That's the way the process works. If he chooses to break the law, then he does so at peril because no court has said the law is bad.
You say the law is bad. But you are not the courts, so what you think is irrelevant.
He is not ignoring any laws. He is ignoring a vote by a committee.
The committe had a vote. He is ignoring that vote. The committe can't pass laws or budgets that are binding on the state. Only a majority voting of the full legislature in a sanctioned legal legislative sesson can pass laws or budgets that are binding on the state.
Nor is the committee part of the executive branch.
He can just ignore them.
There is absolutely nothing that they can do about it.
"The committe can't pass laws or budgets that are binding on the state. Only a majority voting of the full legislature in a sanctioned legal legislative sesson can pass laws or budgets that are binding on the state."
The Nevada Revised Statutes say they can. Until that law is overturned (look in Chapter 293 of the NRS for the specific statute), it is binding on the governor.
If he doesn't like it, it's his responsibility to sue. He cannot simply ignore it - then he would be breaking his oath to see that the LAWS are faithfully executed.
You get an "F" in Political Science 101, Rock. Try taking the remedial course.
I am not sure if you can even pass the remedial course in civics.
Chapter 293 of NRS deals with election laws and there is no mention of Interim Finance Committee in it.
The IFC is defined in 218 and is referred to in various other NRS's but not 293.
You can not even cite the correct NRS.
Even a leader from your party agrees with me.
"Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, said he has long had concerns about it. Without a full meeting of the 63 legislators, a resident of a district without a senator or assemblyman on the board is not represented, the argument goes.
"The system creates a sort of superlegislator," said Coffin, who has served on the committee for 23 of his 27 years in the Senate."
But let's check off your understanding:
1) A small group of leglisative members have the power to pass laws and budgets that are binding on the state while at the same time denying the representatives the citizens that voted for those representatives from having a voice in the passage of those laws and budgets
2) You also think that complies with the Nevada Constitution
3) You are OK with that ogliarchy form of government
4) You believe that the Govenor should blindly enforce unconstitutional laws. Just a FYI, presidents have ignored laws or parts of laws that they believe are unconstitutional.
I think you should remove the word democrat from your moniker and replace it with DouglasOgliarchists.
I always suspected that Democrats really have a low regard for democracy concidering that many Democrats go heads over heels with thugs like Chavez and Castro.