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StumbleNew member of governor’s cabinet drew two state paychecks
Thursday, Sept. 29, 2011 | 2 a.m.
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TIMELINE:
- July 2007 - Gov. Jim Gibbons appoints Frank Woodbeck to the Nevada Commission on Economic Development.
- February 2009 - While on the commission, Woodbeck signs consulting contract with the state’s Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation for green initiatives.
- October 2009 - Woodbeck takes full-time job with the Commission on Economic Development to oversee the Las Vegas office and workforce initiatives.
- October 2009 - Woodbeck seeks opinion from the Ethics Commission on propriety of consulting for DETR while an Economic Development Commission employee.
- December 2009 - Ethics Commission votes 6-1 that Woodbeck can keep the consulting contract and work for the state full-time because it is a pre-existing contract. Commission members warn, however, that he should return to them if the “scope of work” changes.
- February 2011 - Consulting contract with DETR terminated.
- September 2011 - Sandoval appoints Woodbeck as DETR director.
The newly appointed director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation held down two state jobs last fiscal year, earning almost as much as the governor.
Frank Woodbeck, who will join Gov. Brian Sandoval’s cabinet Monday, was, from July 2010 to March, both the full-time Southern Nevada director of the state’s Commission on Economic Development and a paid contract consultant to the state on “green jobs” training, according to records obtained by the Las Vegas Sun.
His economic development job paid almost $82,000; and from July 2010 to March the state paid $57,700 to Manpower Inc., which paid Woodbeck for his consulting work, according to state records.
Manpower is a staffing company that provides temporary employees to state government. And agency directors are given wide latitude in choosing who Manpower hires for a specific position.
Woodbeck said he worked nights and weekends on the contract job with the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.
“I put in 60- to 70-hour weeks,” he said. “Anyone who knows me, works with me, knows what kind of hours I put in.”
The consulting contract ended in February, when Woodbeck said the work ended. That was also the same time Sandoval’s office was pressuring the department to cut back on its consulting contracts.
Sandoval named Woodbeck this month to head the department. The agency’s most visible role is paying unemployment benefits.
The governor’s office received an anonymous letter last week, apparently written by employees inside the department, expressing concern about Woodbeck’s holding a full-time state job and doing state consulting work. Woodbeck’s contract, as well as contracts held by others, made the department “a laughing stock, and full of waste and abuses,” the letter claimed.
The letter, signed “Ethical State Employees,” requested that the Sandoval administration investigate the issue or they would go to the media.
During the 2009 and 2011 sessions, lawmakers passed bills to curb the use of consultants and contractors, particularly work done by current or recently retired state workers.
Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, who sponsored the legislation, said so-called “double dipping” leads to legitimate questions about whether employees are adequately doing their full-time state jobs. She said such arrangements also give a skewed view of the number of positions agencies need to fulfill their duties.
“I think we have to be very sensitive to public perception,” Smith said.
Her most recent bill on the subject, passed this year, prevents current or recently retired state employees from contracting with the state unless it’s approved in a public meeting.
A 2009 audit by the Legislative Counsel Bureau found 250 former and current state workers providing services to the state, at a cost of $11.6 million in fiscal 2008 and 2009.
The audit also found some irregularities. For example, one contractor/employee logged 25 hours of work in a single day and consultants got paid without written contracts. The audit also found that the state lacked controls to ensure contractors were not working when they were supposed to be doing their full-time jobs. The audit did not single out employees by name.
Woodbeck’s contract wouldn’t be the first DETR pact to prompt questions.
Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly had a $60,000-a-year contract with the agency to provide community relations on “green initiatives.” That contract, which also went through Manpower, was canceled in May 2009 after media reports about the contract raised questions about a potential conflict with his position as an elected official.
The department was unable to produce documentation of Woodbeck’s consulting work Tuesday. State law generally prohibits state workers from contracting with other state agencies. But the law is silent on whether employees can retain pre-existing consulting agreements, as Woodbeck did.
In an October 2009 letter to the Nevada Commission on Ethics, Deputy Attorney General Shane Chesney wrote: “It may be the case that this arrangement complies with the letter of the law (or not) but not the spirit of the law.”
At the suggestion of Chesney and others, Woodbeck asked the Commission on Ethics for an advisory opinion in October 2009 — after he had accepted the full-time position with DETR.
The commission ruled in favor of Woodbeck, 6-1, because the contract was in place before he was hired. But commissioners warned that any change in his consulting work should be brought back to the commission, according to a transcript of the proceedings. (Woodbeck agreed to make public a transcript of the confidential proceedings.)
“If his contract with Manpower and/or DETR changes, it is a whole new ballgame, you are starting from scratch,” said Ethics Commissioner Gregory Gale.
Woodbeck, in an interview with the Sun, acknowledged that his work for DETR took on a broader scope from when he was hired in February and when he went to the Ethics Commission in October.
He originally aimed to be part of the “green jobs” effort, noting the federal stimulus was being debated in Washington at the time. The “scope of work” submitted to the agency proposed “research and fact-finding with the major stakeholders in the re-employment and employment expansion efforts.” Woodbeck said he coordinated efforts to secure a $6 million “State Energy Sector Partnership” grant and apply for other grants that the state did not receive.
Woodbeck said his work eventually expanded through verbal agreements with former DETR Director Larry Mosley, including working with higher-education institutions and assisting a deputy director of the agency.
“I took the burden from other people in the agency who had their own work to get done,” Woodbeck said. “It was a high-stress time for the agency, when unemployment was rising rapidly. I had various assignments.”
Mike Skaggs, executive director of the Commission on Economic Development, called Woodbeck “the consummate professional.” Skaggs wanted Woodbeck to be the Las Vegas operations manager because of his relationship with DETR, he said.
“He was the perfect guy to help build that bridge between us and DETR,” Skaggs said. Thanks in part to Woodbeck’s work, Skaggs said, the agency can now quickly provide to prospective businesses a list of qualified but unemployed workers in Nevada.
Dale Erquiaga, senior adviser to Sandoval, said the governor was unaware of the contract when he selected Woodbeck as DETR director.
The governor’s office was investigating the matter this week, including reviewing the Ethics Commission transcript, Erquiaga said. “At this point, it doesn’t appear that anything is wrong or there’s any problem with his appointment as director,” he said.
Discussion: 10 comments so far…
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Dale is always there, how many jobs does he have? With alll the unemployment, they couldn't get someone else to do the job? They needed a double dipper?
This may be criminal. I cannot believe that the taxpayers continue to be fleeced in times like these. If this guy isn't removed from whatever position(s) he holds, then those in the state of NV should revolt!
This is disgusting....plain and simple. Nights and weekends, right...
Where is the "Shared Sacrifice"? Does anyone see this for Sandoval's buddies?
Shared sacrifice is the Plan for wage earners to pay for the graft and corruption of their leaders who go to church every Sunday and send praises to God for the riches He has brought them.
Double dipping bum- while the rest of us are out of work. I suppose he's indispenible and nobody else can do his "jobs". Another it's all about me republican !
Sandoval - Gibbons - Same as it ever was.
I also work for the state, work 60- to 70-hour weeks, and I took a pay cut. Thanks, Gov. Emptysuit Sandogibbons.
It is fricking annoying that Gov. Sandoval keeps appointing all of his inside buddies and politicos to these high level state jobs, instead of properly posting the jobs and reviewing the resumes of the scores, or hundreds, or thousands of qualified but currently unemployed business people in this state too. I would rather run DETR than take an unemployment check from them each week. How do I get me one of these sweetheart consulting contracts pimping "green jobs" around the state or consulting to "network green companies" with DETR because they are all too busy double dipping?
I do not want to be part of the 14.2% anymore, Gov--do something!
Of course, a political pawn of the rooster can violate the spirit of the law as long as the letter of the law is not broken. Exactly the way this article concluded with the statement given by the governor's office. Slick manipulation isn't it? You have to give some state employees and our politicians credit. They are good at what they do. Cheating, stealing, lying and maneuvering. But, on the other side of the spectrum, we honestly have to applaud the group of, "Ethical State Employees", who submitted this letter for investigation, anonymously. To bad they didn't have the faith or trust in our state government leaders to list their names on that letter of complaint. Pretty sad that a group of state employees, "doing the right and proper thing feared some type of retaliation originating from the governor's office isn't it? And, this is a state that has a whistle-blower law that guarantees protection of those who reveal wrong-doing or corruption in its ranks. So, now we have a new double-dipping agency chief that is responsible for paying out unemployment benefits. Hmm. Didn't I just read an article about the huge amount of money this same agency has recently paid out in unauthorized unemployment benefits? Isn't this akin to a hungry cat chasing mice because they ate too much cheese? Don't look away. This should get very interesting. Of course, at the expense of your tax dollars, as usual.
It would be news if cronyism wasn't widespread in the BS administration. This hardly rates as newsworthy.
60-70- hour weeks? There are teachers who put in that kind of work, as part of their regular job. But they don't get paid near that much. Think Woodbeck advocates on their behalf as well as pleading his own position?
there oughta be a law - that on state payroll other benefits be deducted from your salary or at least reduce your available salary or maybe suspend pensions and social security - oh maybe if your name is Sandoval or Gibbons you should be exempted?
What a joke. Another example of who you know not what you know. This whole city's employment system is a farce. Only the few who have friends in the right places stay employed and given opportunities. The rest of us get it rubbed in our face, how worthless we are and made to beg for any cent available to earn. And even then to only be told that "...we will be in touch.". Thank you Mr Schwartz for bringing the reality to today's news.
Send him a case of "low regulation" Colorado cantaloupe for his extra service to mankind.
I think he's perfect to be the new director of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. At a time of record unemployment, he knows how to get 2 jobs.
Schwartz -- good one!
This is more proof our state government is more concerned with window dressing -- giving us only the appearance it's actually tightening its belt -- than actually doing the job we send them to Carson City to do. Add on new laptops all around for the last session and $35k for their own exercise room equipment, and all the many other examples that doesn't make the news here, it all adds up to how much more the budget needs chopping out, not just trimming off a little here and there for show. Call it "good ol'boy," cronyism, whatever -- every government entity has its insiders who are there to feather their nests and little more.
This problem is everywhere -- locally there's that recent bit about the SNWA chafing at the suggestion their attorney bill was too high. It's clear government is incapable of reforming itself. How much relief $35k would bring to those poor souls along Las Vegas Blvd. north of downtown?
"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"
As most "aware" members of most communities know, the media is now concentrated in the hands of very few wealthy individuals. These individuals, such as Rupert Murdoch, see to it that their newspapers, radio stations, and television stations tailor the "news" to suit their financial and political agendas. There is no transparency. They tell you what they want you to know and ignore what they don't want you to know. This story is a good example of that. Do you think the publisher/editor of our city's other newspaper would ever print this story? If you do, I have this bridge.........
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
Here is another example of blatant fraud and the '16 hour shift' civil servant!
Funny how when the average state employee wants to work a second job at McD's or Home Depot, it takes an act of congress. When a well-connected guy works essentially two STATE jobs, it's OK.
Carson City adds layers of bureaucracy to prevent even the appearance of in-house impropriety, but evidently that doesn't apply to the upper echelons of state government.
Here's Frank's deep bio. http://www.plaxo.com/directory/profile/3...
Seems he got his start with an outfit named Cap Cities, lol.
If he was drawing 2 checks from the State then his hours should have been at LEAST 80 a week!
At 60-70 hours a week the State of Nevada was getting ripped off none the less.
1 question. He says that he did the "consulting" on nights and weekends. How did he do that since DETR is a Mon - Fri or Mon - Sat operation open from 7 or 8 am to 5 pm. Just wondering....
"The governor's office was investigating the matter this week, including reviewing the Ethics Commission transcript, Erquiaga said. "At this point, it doesn't appear that anything is wrong or there's any problem with his appointment as director," he said."
What is wrong is they don't see it as a problem!
His whole Plaxo resume is radio and cable advertising sales before he landed NV political appointments. How is he qualified to run DETR? Why is it older stuffed shirt black guys without credentials get this job and fail at it after awhile???
Typical "It's who ya know" Nevada cronyism.
"It's a small state where everybody knows each other...yada yada yada."