Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Board OKs texting-while-driving ban for state workers

CARSON CITY – The Nevada Board of Examiners has agreed to prohibit state workers from using electronic devices, including sending text messages, while driving a government vehicle.

State budget director Andrew Clinger said the policy won't apply to public safety officers.

Clinger said previously that he didn’t know of any accidents that were caused by texting, but called it a preventive measure.

Several legislators have requested bills for introduction during the 2011 session to prohibit texting among the general public. There is at least one bill that would outlaw use of cell phones while driving.

The new state policy regarding state workers, adopted Tuesday, doesn't carry a penalty.

Also today, the board approved exempting correctional officers at state prisons from the one-day-a-month mandatory furlough imposed on state workers by the 2009 Legislature.

Clinger said allowing the officers to work their full schedule will cost $625,714 during November and December -- and there is $1 million left in a reserve fund to handle these exceptions.

The board also approved a $450,000 settlement for the family of death row inmate Patrick Cavanaugh, who died at the Ely state prison. His survivors and estate filed suit claiming Cavanaugh didn't get proper medication for his diabetes. An out-of-court settlement was reached.

Cavanaugh, former manager of the entertainment group The Coasters, died in 2006 at age 60. He was convicted in the 1980 fatal shooting of group member Nathanial “Buster” Wilson.

In other action, the board delayed for one month a $1.5 million contract for the state Public Employees Benefits Program to hire a company called Extend Health to help retirees, including those with Medicare, to switch over to private policies.

Jim Wells, the executive director of the employees benefit program that covers state workers and retirees, said the change would save the system $16 million over a two-year period.

But Secretary of State Ross Miller, one of the three board members, said there were still unresolved questions about the change. “We don’t have all the answers,” he said.

Miller said he would likely vote for the contract after there is additional time to get more information. Gov. Jim Gibbons and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto went along with Miller.

Gibbons, the board chairman who is recovering from surgery, conducted the teleconferenced meeting from the governor’s mansion while Masto was in Las Vegas.

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