Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

ELECTED OFFICIALS: Assembly panel leaders oppose raises

Government Affairs Committee chief says bill to boost salaries going nowhere

CARSON CITY -- Assembly Government Affairs Committee leaders said Monday they oppose the 50 percent-plus pay increases that county elected officials would receive under a bill before their committee.

"This bill is not going anywhere now," said Chairman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas.

Looking at the 50 or so elected officials from various counties sitting in his hearing room, Manendo questioned who was running their offices back home. No officials from Clark County were present.

After the meeting, Manendo said he does not know what will happen next with Assembly Bill 66, but that it will not pass in its present form.

Assemblyman Wendell Williams, D-Las Vegas, added it would be wrong to grant county officials big pay increases when Clark County government employees are working without a contract. The contract with the Service Employees International Union Local 1107 ended in July.

Williams and Manendo said they have received hundreds of letters and e-mail messages from county workers upset over the proposed pay increases.

"It is sort of arrogant and inconsiderate to approve this when employees in Clark County don't have any real negotiation on their cost-of-living increases," said Williams, vice chairman of the committee.

The Assembly traditionally has backed higher pay for elected county officials, including in 2001. The Senate usually defeats such proposals. But last week Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, and Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, both said they favor the pay increases.

Under the pay bill, the salary of Clark County District Attorney David Roger, now $100,800, would jump by 54.5 percent, to $155,744 per year. Pay for Clark County Sheriff Bill Young, now $84,000, would climb 59.8 percent to $134,262 a year.

Increases of at least 36 percent would be given under the bill to district attorneys and sheriffs in the other 16 counties.

Salaries of Clark County commissioners, now $54,000, would increase by 49.2 percent to $80,558 a year. Annual pay for the Clark County clerk, treasurer, recorder, assessor and public administrator, now $72,000, would climb by 60.5 percent, to $115,584.

Though the last pay increase for county officials came in 1995, Manendo pointed out legislators have not had a salary increase in 18 years. Legislators earn $7,800 for the 120-day legislative session, and nothing in years the Legislature is not in session.

"There is not one member of this committee that makes more than any employee in the state," Williams added. "We knew that going in. We can cry about it, we can whine about it, but it is the reality."

Speaking by teleconference from Las Vegas, Katie Hughes-Appel, a service employees union member, said county workers have averaged 3.4 percent annual pay increases since 1995, the last year the Legislature increased pay for county elected officials.

Elected leaders, she said, "should be required to tighten their belt like county employees must do."

In response, Clark County lobbyist Dan Musgrove said the average county worker has received 7 percent higher pay annually since 1997. That includes a 4 percent annual merit pay increase, which three-fourths of the workers receive. Some workers also receive longevity pay.

He said the county has asked the union to submit to third-party fact-finding in an effort to finish negotiations, but the union refuses.

Under the state constitution, the Legislature sets pay for county elected officials. But the bill would allow county commissions to decide against granting the pay increases if they feel the higher pay would be a financial burden on the county.

So far, only Mineral County has announced it will not go forward with the pay increases if the Legislature passes the bill.