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StumbleConservative group sues to ban public employees from the Legislature
Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 | 12:25 p.m.
A conservative think tank filed a lawsuit today with the ultimate goal of preventing public employees from serving in the Nevada Legislature.
The Nevada Policy Research Institute’s lawsuit focuses on state Sen. Mo Denis, D-Las Vegas, who works as a computer technician for the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, which is under the executive branch of state government. He also serves in the Legislature, which passes budgets and sets policy for state government.
Speaking outside a Carson City courthouse, Andy Matthews, president of the institute, said: “The same person should not be judging policy in the Legislature and executing it in the executive branch." Having that much power concentrated in one person’s hands “leads to oppressive power.”
While the suit focuses on Denis, who is in line to lead Senate Democrats, the implications could be much larger, said Joseph Becker, chief legal officer and director of the think tank’s Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation, which is the entity filing the suit.
According to the group, several of the state’s 63 lawmakers work for a public entity, including school districts and local governments, and should be prevented from serving both their day jobs and in the state’s part-time Legislature, which meets 120 days in odd-numbered years.
Of the 10 lawmakers identified by the institute as working for a public agency and serving in the Legislature, eight are Democrats and two are Republicans.
Denis has regularly disclosed his position with the PUC before voting in the Legislature on matters that affect state workers’ pay and retirement benefits. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Lorne Malkiewich, director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, which staffs the Legislature, said the level authority that a lawmaker holds in an executive branch job determines whether it violates the separation of powers called for in the constitution.
“In general, our position has been whether you are exercising the power of the executive branch,” he said. He used the hypothetical example of a janitor who cleans garbage cans in Nevada Supreme Court, the Legislature and Capitol buildings. “Are they exercising a function, or merely just working for them?” he said.
Proving that local government employees such as teachers and county workers should also be prohibited from serving becomes more difficult, Malkiewich said. Local governments are separate entities from state government.
Becker, the attorney suing in the case, said he believed it would apply because local governments are created by the state.
Article 3, Section 1 of the Nevada Constitution reads: “The powers of the Government of the State of Nevada shall be divided into three separate departments, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial; and no persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any functions, appertaining to either of the others...”
Discussion: 13 comments so far…
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Too bad this conservative idea was not passed when Jim Gibbons was running for office, since his public employee job at the Nevada Air National Guard would have disqualified him. I guess conservatives don't want public employees in the military/police/homeland security running for the Nevada Legislature.
Except Gibbons ran for an executive branch position while being an executive branch employee, so he would not be disqualified.
This involves LEGISLATORS also being executive branch employees.
NPRI's case would be far more compelling if it wasn't contrary to existing precedent. A member of the legislature must hold a public office in order to be disqualified from serving in two branches at once, and public office has a particular meaning in case law. To be a public officer, a person must be exercising some part of the sovereign functions of government. Denis' employment likely doesn't qualify.
@ScottNV - Gibbons was a state assemblyman from Reno in the '80s and '90s, while he was in the Nevada Air Guard. The Nevada Legislature was his launchpad to US congress and Gov.. This conservative proposal would have nipped Gibbon's political career in the bud and we wouldn't have had to deal with him for decades.
"The same person should not be judging policy in the Legislature and executing it in the executive branch."
"Denis is a computer network technician for the Public Utilities Commission."
http://www.lvrj.com/news/-mo-denis-ready...
Didn't know NPRI was so threatened by network techs! So he doesn't actually execute policy in his job, then, right? So the entire premise of this argument is debunked, which leads us to ask: why file suit against Denis?
Because Denis is a Democrat who is poised to become the majority leader in the state senate and will control some committee assignments, etc...
This has nothing to do with constitutional values and everything to do with a crass political ploy by a local organization which adulates Karl Rove.
http://www.npri.org/docLib/20090611_NPRI...
Of course, if this all came to pass, you'd still be able to be a banker, a lawyer or a real estate developer - because we all know those professions would never stack the deck for themselves when promulgating laws.
@UTE - good point, and don't forget lobbyist/influence peddler ala Herman Cain or Newt Gingrich would still be eligible for Nevada Legislature, under this conservative proposal.
You are sooooooooo correct UTE(William Finch) You must have omitted Miners and Casino operators by error but you are forgiven.
I'm am sure an IT Tech has a lot of power in the PUC. He probably makes all the decisions for the PUC while the members draw the kick backs from their favored Utilities.
Maybe this will help explain it:
http://news.yahoo.com/why-republicans-em...
Just another example of why of gotten sick of Republican's and the ultra right wing nuts that control them. They now want to control who can get elected.
"Article 3, Section 1 of the Nevada Constitution reads: "The powers of the Government of the State of Nevada shall be divided into three separate departments, the Legislative, the Executive and the Judicial; and no persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any functions, appertaining to either of the others..."
NPRI missed their mark with this one. They should have gone after attorneys -- they infest government everywhere, at every level. They are officers of the courts, the judicial branch. By NPRI's thinking, and according to this part of our Constitution, exactly how do our governor and certain legislators escape this prohibition? Especially since each of them takes an oath to support, defend and protect that same Constitution they're violating in the same breath?
"Government . . . an illusion the governed should not encourage." -- John Updike "Couples"
Good for NPRI. This is an important issue, regardless of the political backdrop or the likely consequences. Separation of powers is fundamental to our state and federal government. Each of the three branches likes to move into and occupy the territory properly assigned to the other branches. They do not self regulate, and they are always prone to the acquisition of more power. It takes these types of lawsuits to highlight the CONSTITUTIONAL boundaries and shake the lethargy out of the system.
They're right. These double dippers should earn at least some of their income from the private sector. They'll work two or three careers paid for by the taxpayer and then retire and draw their retirement from the taxpayer for the rest of their life. This can be excused in some cases which are understandable and difficult to avoid, but not when they involve the legislature. It is correct to want to prevent our policy makers from benefitting from the policies they create.
Just take a good look at some of the more recent laws that have passed that have made the lawmakers and those in office not accountable for their actions while they are in office and then tell me they aren't just playing bad game of CYA.
"These double dippers should earn at least some of their income from the private sector. They'll work two or three careers paid for by the taxpayer and then retire and draw their retirement from the taxpayer for the rest of their life."
I'm a state employee. More than 13 percent of my salary goes into the retirement system. I won't exactly be drawing my retirement from the taxpayer (which I am, incidentally - which means that I pay part of my own salary).
My God, are they trying to undermine the corruption that controls this state?
Is Kevin Sandoval still holding his "Drink for Liberals" happy hours? Time for a DUI!
NPRI wants the Legislature run by private individuals with personal wealth as their prime objective.
They want bank executives instead who steer public contracts into the hands of their buddies. Casino executives who steer legislation to cut out their competition, etc.
Too many private sector types run for office to get rich on the public, such as passing laws to allow their financial groups to profit from the public.
The best law would prevent anyone with an outside job from working in the legislature and put an upper limit on their income, say $125,000.
"Good for NPRI. This is an important issue, regardless of the political backdrop or the likely consequences..."
JudgeN -- your post is a good snapshot of how our governments really operate, and it should disturb every one of us as citizens! What you've just described is something I've long suspected -- our governments are acting like corporations with the primary goals of profit and expanding power.
The flipside of all this is the apathy of the body politick. As you so ably posted, government has proven itself completely incapable of self-reform. The judicial branch is a prime example of this. Instead of being the guardians of our rights as originally charged it has instead, like the rest of government, become the apex predator actively on the hunt for any excuse to get our money -- whether we have it or not. I've long held the average citizen has no clue how low the quality is of the average sitting judge until facing one -- if he can afford the price of "justice." The experience will likely be one of having the bench yawn in his face when the clear rule of law is invoked and he loses his case, with all the ills that carries.
"Nobody necessarily wants to roll the dice [in a courtroom]." -- Neil Opfer, a construction management professor at UNLV who has served as a consultant or expert witness in more than 2,000 construction-related lawsuits.
If this gets passed, it will only pertain to Democrats.
If a Republican works as a streetsweeper or dogcatcher?
Eh. No problem.
We can work it out.
The IOKIYAR* Rule goes into effect.
*It's OK If You Are Republican.
Without a doubt, how this article reminds me back to a time as a peace officer in this state to where my shift sergeant was not only my boss, he was the union chapter representative, and served as well in the state legislative branch. You talk about a man who believed he was courting the path of absolute power! And, he may have been right. For, to finally neutralize his seemingly indestructable power base, it took the act of hiring a new agency director, with newly placed management streamlined throughout the ranks whose visions and policies were the complete opposite of the past regime. This agency went through a tough transformation that was akin to an all out battle zone. Even after all these years have passed, interrnally, the wounds and scars have not healed. I doubt that they ever will. However, the permanent breakup of any attempt by any person, or group trying to attain forms of absolute power must be dealt with immediately, swiftly and in a harsh manner.
"If this gets passed, it will only pertain to Democrats."
Colin -- this is a lawsuit, not a bill before the legislature. Get some coffee in you and try again.
"...the permanent breakup of any attempt by any person, or group trying to attain forms of absolute power must be dealt with immediately, swiftly and in a harsh manner."
BChap -- good advice. But to be effective that requires an alert, involved citizenry, which is sadly lacking. I mean the kind who actually do something about it beyond posting here. I can tell you firsthand never underestimate the power of just one pissed-off, dedicated citizen. I can also tell you firsthand no good deed goes unpunished.
"I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically." -- Henry David Thoreau 1849 "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience"
News flash.....liberals sue to keep conservatives out of the legislature. The NPRI must be flush with cash to clog the courts with this crap. Dennis whoever he is needs to hit the NPRI whoever they are with a slap suit and really make things fun.
Just like mud wrestling but without the pretty girls!!!
What's next, denying public employees and entitlement recipients the right to vote as well? I see myself as a conservative & as a GOP'er, and would support some restrictions on public employee unions, but some on the right seem just as nutty and autocratic as some on the left.
Mo Dennis discloses that he works for the P.U.C. and as long as he is upfront with this and gets elected by the voters in his district that is fine with me. As for the N.P.R.I. this is a example of what they truly stand for and that is taking away the commoners right of self determination.