Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NLV hires Buck's daughter as intern

Officials say hiring of councilwoman's relative not improper

North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Shari Buck's teenage daughter has been hired as a $12-an-hour intern with the city's Police Department.

City officials said there was nothing improper in the hiring.

"She's not an employee, she's a summer intern," Shari Buck said of her daughter, Jenna, 19.

Jenna Buck, who will be a junior in the fall at Brigham Young University, is a sociology major interested in a career in law enforcement, her mother said. Her grandfather -- Shari Buck's father, Jim Avance -- is a former police chief in North Las Vegas.

Shari Buck and Tim Bedwell, a Police Department spokesman, said the idea of hiring Jenna as an intern came about after the councilwoman and police Chief Mark Paresi had lunch one afternoon.

The chief, who was unavailable Monday, mentioned to Buck that his son had recently graduated from college and planned on a career in law enforcement. Buck mentioned that her daughter was also interested in a career in law enforcement, she said.

The chief suggested that Buck's daughter apply to be a summer intern with the department, Buck said.

Bedwell said the department is in desperate need of women and minorities. "We don't reflect the community as a department," he said.

He said the position Jenna Buck is filling is a new one.

Buck stressed that she checked with the city manager's office to see if there were any rules prohibiting her daughter from working as a summer intern with the Police Department. She said she also checked with other council members and none had a problem with it.

Ali R. Freeman, the city's director of human resources, said he told Buck that there are no rules prohibiting a councilperson's family member from working as an intern with the city.

He said interns are not considered city employees. However, if the younger Buck were an employee, there still would be nothing wrong with her working at the Police Department because she is not supervised by her mother, Freeman said.

"Had she said 'I want my daughter to work for me in the City Council office,' I would have said 'No,' " Freeman said.

Jenna Buck, who began her internship last month, will work through the summer until she goes back to school in August, Bedwell said. Her duties include working with the department's crime scene team, its victims assistance program and its community services division.

When asked if she thought there was a conflict because, as a councilwoman, she helps oversee the department's budget, Shari Buck said no.

"That's really a pretty ridiculous argument," she said. "I have always been pro-police. I support the chief and the Police Department in fighting crime. It really has nothing to do with whether my daughter has a summer internship."

Freeman pointed out that Buck is just one member of the council, not the ultimate boss of the police chief.

"It's kind of far-fetched to believe one member has control over a department's budget," he said.

Bedwell said not hiring Jenna Buck as an intern would have been punishing her because of her mother's position.

"Do you deny the granddaughter of a former chief of police an internship when there are no rules that prohibit it just because her mother is a councilwoman?" he said.