North Las Vegas agrees to raise pay for alternate judges

Alternate judges filling in for the North Las Vegas Municipal Court will get paid the same as their counterparts elsewhere across Nevada, under an ordinance adopted Wednesday night by the North Las Vegas City Council.

Compensation will be increased to $300 for hearing a full day of misdemeanor and traffic-related cases, up from the current rate of $200 per day. Half-day shifts will rise from $100 to $150.

City officials said the compensation increase matches what alternate judges earn while serving other local municipal courthouses. It is also aimed at attracting qualified justices to step in when Judge Sean Hoeffgen — the lone North Las Vegas Municipal Court judge — is absent.

“We want to bring ourselves in line with what the other courts are doing,” Hoeffgen told the City Council. “We did a study to look at what other jurisdictions are doing, in particular other municipal courts, and we would be in line with what Reno and Henderson compensate their pro-tem judges.”

The North Las Vegas municipal bench lost a seat in July 2016 as part of a cost-cutting effort by the City Council to save $365,821 annually on salaries for a judge and an assistant. The move was also a political rebuke of former Municipal Court Judge Catherine Ramsey, who was barred from seeking re-election last year after admitting to seven charges of unprofessional conduct.

A part-time judge currently assists with overflow cases, holidays and weekends, Hoeffgen told the City Council earlier this year.

Separately, roughly 40 employees from the Secretary of State’s office will move out of the Grant Sawyer State Office Building and into North Las Vegas City Hall, under a deal approved Wednesday night by the City Council.

By mid-August, the Secretary of State workers will occupy a 14,184-square-foot space on the fourth floor of City Hall — along with two customer service windows on the first floor — under a $973,590 lease spanning three years.

Other agencies have taken up residence in North Las Vegas City Hall. Employees from Ames Construction and the Nevada Department of Transportation moved last September into a 10,000-square-foot space on the third floor of City Hall under a $176,012 one-year lease.

The construction firm moved to North Las Vegas shortly after it was awarded a $57.8 million contract by NDOT to widen a five-mile stretch of U.S. Highway 93 from Interstate 15 to Apex Power Parkway, also known as the Garnet interchange.

Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen agreed in January 2016 to a $51,660 annual lease for 2,300 square feet of office space on the fifth floor of City Hall.

Contact Art Marroquin at amarroquin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Find @AMarroquin_LV on Twitter.