CARSON CITY -- The state cannot hire psychiatrists and nurses fast enough to fully staff the new Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, a top administrator said Tuesday.

Carlos Brandenburg, administrator of state Mental Health and Development Services, told legislators that 39 of the 86 beds in the hospital are not going to be used initially because he cannot hire staff members.

He said after the meeting that the state has been recruiting nationally to fill the vacancies, but there is a nationwide shortage in nurses and psychiatrists. Many prefer working for private companies or donating three or four hours a week to nonprofit mental health organizations.

"For a variety of reasons, they don't want to work for the state," Brandenburg added. "We haven't found it is because of the image of state government. Some just don't want to work a 40-hour week."

He requested and received approval from the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee to use $1.1 million of his agency's budget to fill some vacancies with contract employees. The committee also agreed to spend $3.6 million through next June 30 to allow nonprofit WestCare to continue to provide care for 25 mental health patients a day in Southern Nevada. The organization's existing contract with the state expired Sept. 5.

Without the approval, Brandenburg said, the 25 patients would have been evicted from the WestCare facility today. That would have compounded an already serious problem, he said. He noted that 42 other mental health patients are waiting in hospital emergency rooms in Las Vegas for bed space to open in state psychiatric facilities.

Brandenburg said he has been unable to fill 45 of 99 nursing positions at the new hospital and he also needs to hire another eight psychiatrists to staff various mental health facilities in Southern Nevada.

"It isn't the salaries," he told legislators. "We are very competitive. It is difficult to bring in a (full) staff in a short time."

But state Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, objected to funding WestCare. He noted that beds for state psychiatric patients in Reno mostly are vacant and questioned why WestCare can find nurses and psychiatrists when the state cannot.

"This is fiscally irresponsible," Beers said. He noted the state offers better pay and benefits than WestCare and recommended the state try to hire its staff. Brandenburg said he has tried that. "We offered them jobs," he said. "None accepted the offers."

Ultimately only Beers and Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, voted against the proposed funding changes.