Thursday, June 03, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

CITY COUNCIL: Policy limits workers in Legislature

City employees would have to take unpaid leave during campaigns, legislative sessions

For now, city of Las Vegas employees will be able to serve in the Legislature. But the policy unanimously adopted by the City Council on Wednesday won't make it easy.

"The council is taking a position that makes it impossible for those making $30,000 a year to run for office," said Tommy Ricketts, president of the Las Vegas City Employees' Association. "The only people who can run are those who own a $600,000 home and drive a BMW."

The policy is an effort to replace past perceptions of no-show jobs and favorable treatment for lawmakers on the city payroll with costly sacrifices.

Currently, no city employees serve in the Nevada Legislature.

Under the policy, employees must take unpaid leave once they file to run for the Legislature and, if they win, during the Legislature's 120-day sessions every other year. The employee-lawmakers could continue to receive city benefits while on leave, but at their own expense.

The city will prohibit the employees from using vacation pay during sessions and limit its use for legislative duties between sessions. The city won't issue cell phones and laptop computers to employee-lawmakers or lobby them. Employees in positions that create a conflict of interest with their elective office will be reassigned or asked to resign.

The council has debated and developed the policy to prevent the abuses and controversy that led to the firing of Assemblyman Wendell Williams last year, while avoiding an outright ban on city employees serving as lawmakers.

The Las Vegas Democrat was terminated from the city's Department of Neighborhood Services for, among other things, receiving sick pay while at the Legislature and using a city-issued cell phone for personal calls without reimbursing the city. He also claimed city officials pressured him to back legislation and rewarded him for getting bills passed.

"We have to do everything to eliminate the appearance of impropriety, double-dipping and everything else," Councilman Larry Brown said.

But Ricketts wondered whether the restrictions add up to a de facto ban on legislative service by city employees.

For a city employee who files for office, is elected and serves during the following session, the policy would require them to take unpaid leave over 10 months during a 12-month period.

Mayor Oscar Goodman said the policy doesn't add up to a ban. Rather, he said, it assures employees seeking office are doing it for the right reasons.

"It's a choice. Life is choices," the mayor said.

Ricki Barlow, the only city employee running for office this year, won't face those choices.

The City Council liaison, who is running for the Assembly District 1 seat as a Democrat, would have been forced to take unpaid leave once the policy became law. But because the deadline for withdrawing from the race has passed, the council decided to delay implementation of the policy until Jan. 1 out of fairness.

"Mr. Barlow is not in a position to make a free choice," Goodman said.

Barlow, whose base city salary is $55,112, said it's too early to decide whether he'll be able to continue to work under the city's new policy should he be elected.

"There's more decisions that I'll have to make," he said. "I'm grateful that the council has allowed city employees to run and, lucky for me, I was able to continue to work and run my campaign in the evening."

Ricketts said some of the policy's restrictions, in particular the ban on using vacation time during sessions, could lead to litigation.

The council left the door open to alter the policy. Councilman Lawrence Weekly said he believes even if changes are needed, the city deserves credit for trying to deal with potentially difficult situation.

"Whether we have hit the mark or not, at least we have something in place to address the issue," he said.

The Nevada Supreme Court is considering whether public employees serving in the Legislature are in violation of the state constitution's separation of powers doctrine. And a group is circulating an initiative petition that seeks an outright ban on public employees serving in the Legislature.