Ex-nuclear agency chief in talks to settle ethics case

Former Nevada nuclear agency chief Bob Loux is proposing to settle his case with the State Ethics Commission by admitting he violated Nevada law when he gave himself an unauthorized pay raise last year.

A copy of the unsigned, stipulated agreement says he will pay $16,444 in restitution for overpayment of his salary in addition to $12,922 in overpaid retirement benefits, or a combined $29,366.

That represents a 14 percent raise that had put his salary at $132,630, up from $116,322, based on a rate of $63.52 an hour last year, according to the proposal the Ethics Commission will consider at its Feb. 12 meeting.

Loux deferred comment on the proposal to one of his attorneys, Judy Sheldrew, who said Wednesday that the proposal was “our effort to compromise the disputed claims” and hold him accountable for his actions in 2008.

“He agrees with it,” Sheldrew said.

If approved by the commission, the agreement would preclude holding a hearing on the matter in March.

Ethics Commission Chairman Mark Hutchinson was unavailable for comment Wednesday.

State investigators for the commission who probed into whether Loux gave himself and his staff unauthorized raises in 2007 and 2008 found, however, that Loux was receiving $125,355 in fiscal year 2007, or 15.4 percent more than his legislative approved salary of $108,677.

Similarly, the investigators’ report shows in 2008 he was earning $145,718. That’s in excess of legislatively approved salary of $114,088, and $13,088 more than the salary claimed in the proposed agreement.

In addition, investigators determined there was “just and sufficient cause” that Loux violated state law when he granted his employees more than $22,489 in pay raises that weren’t approved by legislature.

Loux’s attorneys contend in the proposed agreement that Loux “made no willful violation” because Gov. Kenny Guinn, who preceded Gov. Jim Gibbons, designated Loux as the appointing authority for the Nevada Nuclear Projects Agency. Therefore, Loux “believed he had the authority to set salaries for himself and his staff within the limits of available money.”

Loux resigned as the agency’s executive director and was replaced in January by Bruce Breslow, who was appointed by Gibbons from a field of candidates that the Nuclear Projects Commission had narrowed to three.

Review-Journal Capital Bureau Chief Ed Vogel contributed to this report. Contact reporter Keith Rogers at krogers@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0308.