Irresistible force of the press slams into immovable object of public employee union jobs

Over my many years in the newspaper business, I’ve often compared what we do to turning on the lights and watching the cockroaches skitter.

You’d think by now someone would’ve called the exterminator.

Today we published yet another story about the inability of the taxpayers to hold the bureaucrats responsible. After a series of Review-Journal articles by Joan Whitely in 2007 highlighting dozens of hotel renovations that took place without county permits or inspections, the sum total of one person was fired by the county for failing to properly carry out his duties.

It turns out, he was off the job 11 months and then was quietly returned, following an arbitration ruling, to his same job, at same pay, plus back pay, even the same phone number.

In a bizarrely worded ruling, arbitrator Peter Maydanis wrote: “In reaching this decision, the Arbitrator has considered and found that (Rick) Maddox failed to properly devote the time and attention necessary for the County to properly discharge its obligation to ensure the safety of the public using public places of accommodation within its jurisdiction. Maddox’s sins of omission or commission were serious ones, when one considers them in hindsight.”

But then he went to dismiss all this by saying Maddox had never been properly trained to uncover concealed renovations, never mind that an untrained reporter was able to do so. Maydanis also wrote that “no questions of Maddox’s honesty or integrity have been raised.”

But you might get a different picture if you go back and read the Kessler report, an independent audit conducted by the county. It is posted on Clark County’s Web site, and I also had it posted on our Web site.

In the 97-page report consultant Michael Kessler wrote:

“Kessler also reviewed the GPS records for Supervising Inspector 2’s vehicle (that is Rick Maddox’s) and determined that on February 16, 2007 at 9:02AM the vehicle was reported at West Viking Road and South Valley View Boulevard (that is the Rio hotel). The log indicates that the vehicle was only at the location for 38 minutes. There were no logs available for the first undocumented inspection. ..."

Kessler tried to find out who Maddox contacted but was stonewalled.

So he concluded “the Building Inspectors handling these complaints were derelict in their duties by failing to properly inspect the property in question, and by falsifying the official documents indicating that the complaints were actually investigated. All indications suggest that no inspections were ever conducted.”

No questions of honesty and integrity raised?

An isolated incident, you say?

Consider the fact two Clark County employees who are also state legislators were fired following another Review-Journal report, this one by Frank Geary in 2003 that found they were drawing county pay while also being paid by the state. Yes, they were reinstated to their jobs following arbitration.

Assemblyman Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, was cleared of any wrongdoing and awarded back pay. Assemblywoman Kathy McClain, D-Las Vegas, was awarded her job back but did not receive back pay.

Atkinson defended drawing county sick pay on July 17 and 18, 2003, while in Carson City. He told the Review Journal, "I was so sick, literally all I could do was get out of bed to vote."

At a county human resources hearing Atkinson said, "I made a serious error in judgment when I requested sick time rather than vacation time during the legislative session. I wish I could go back and change that, but of course, I cannot."

To the arbitrator, he insisted he was ill, though he was well enough to have lunch on July 17 at a Chinese restaurant with two other public employees also serving in the Legislature.

Who are going to believe? The public employee or your lying eyes?