Ethics Commission clears nuclear chief over pay increases

AP Photo/Nevada Appeal, Cathleen Allison

Bob Loux, former head of the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, listens to proceedings in an Ethics Commission hearing on March 12 in Carson City. Loux was fired after he increased his and his staff’s salaries above the amounts authorized by the Legislature.

By Cy Ryan (contact)

Thursday, March 26, 2009 | 6:43 p.m.

CARSON CITY – By a 3-2 vote, the state Ethics Commission cleared Bob Loux of allegations that he gave himself unauthorized pay raises while he was director of the Office of Nuclear Projects.

The commission conducted four days of hearings before exonerating Loux, who has resigned from the post.

After the decision, Loux hugged his wife Donnie, who broke into tears. He said he was relieved it was over and believes criminal charges won’t be filed against him.

Loux was accused of improperly giving himself raises, including a 13 percent hike in 2007, which was above the legislatively approved salary level.

Commissioner George Keele said the Legislature never set the salary of Loux, who was a non-classified employee. Under the law, non-classified employees can set salaries in their offices with approval from the governor.

Keele said, “There was no testimony there was a legislatively approved amount for Loux.” Agreeing with him on the narrow issue whether Loux had exceeded the amount set by the Legislature were Don Klasic and Jim Shaw. Dissenting were Chairman Mark Hutchinson and Bob Weise.

Hutchinson said testimony from two witnesses showed there was a budgeted salary and an actual salary. While the Legislature did not specifically approve the amount, the staff of the Legislature had included salary figures in the pay pool that the lawmakers approved.

Earlier in testimony, state Budget Director Andrew Clinger claimed Loux was overpaid $54,921 during four fiscal years.

Loux said he initially got approval from Victoria Soberinsky, deputy chief of staff to then-Gov. Kenny Guinn, to set the salaries in his office. He quoted her as saying the governor’s office trusted him.

Soberinsky testified during the hearing that she did not recall giving him that authority. Guinn said he didn’t remember ever approving any pay raise for Loux.

Loux gave 10-12 raises for his staff. As part of the raises, Loux received an extra $411 a month because he chose to let the state pay his full retirement premium instead of putting up half of the more than $800. A person who lets the state pay the full premium must have part of that deducted from his pay.

Even though he got an extra $411 in his check every two weeks, he said he didn’t know about it since his wife took care of all the financial matters.

“I didn’t pay attention to household expenses,” he testified.

He said he plans to repay the estimated $12,000 extra he received from his failure to deduct his pay. He maintained it was a bookkeeping error that his check was never docked the $411 monthly.

“Everything we did was in the open,” Loux said. “There was no attempt to hide anything.”

He told reporters after the decision, “I never did anything wrong.”

Loux worked for six governors. The hearing brought out bad blood that developed between him and Gov. Jim Gibbons. When Gibbons took office, Loux said he tried to brief the new governor as the issue of Yucca Mountain was heating up.

“I couldn’t get in the door,” he testified. He sent information to the governor and met briefly with two of his top staff.

“There was virtually no contact,” he said. “It was a one-way street."

When it was discovered that there was overspending on salaries, Loux said he met with Clinger and Chief of Staff Josh Hicks. He said he was told to take the blame and not involve the governor when he appeared before the Legislative Interim Finance Committee.

“I didn’t think we were responsible,” said Loux. “I was told to take full responsibility.

“I was out there walking the plank and I had it cut off behind me,” he testified.

After his appearance before the committee, he was given a letter from the governor asking for his resignation. The letter was given to the news media hours before he received it, he said.

Commissioner Bob Weise said Loux, according to his testimony, was “treated bad – more than bad” by the governor and his staff. But Weise, in talking about the hearing, said the budgets for salaries in the office were exceeded three times and there was no evidence that Loux had the authority to raise his salary and that of other employees.

According to figures supplied by the budget office, Loux received a gross pay of $109,696 in 2006 or $6,998 over the budgeted amount; $113,651 in 2007 or $14,742 over the budgeted pay; $132,206 in 2008 or above the $28,725 budgeted pay and $60,145 in 2009, or $4,456 above the budgeted amount.

Loux testified he gave himself and his staff a 13 percent pay raise in July 2007 because it had been doing extra work due to the absence of an employee. He said the staff was getting geared to go into long federal hearings of six days a week and take them away from home in the battle over Yucca Mountain.