Nevada treasurer not too open about hiring GOP chairman McDonald

It's time to update your organization chart, Mr. Treasurer.

Dan Schwartz ran for office espousing a conservative platform and promising to make substantive changes at the State Treasurer's office. "We have not had anyone that's come into the office with the skill sets required," he told a reporter. "On one hand I want to redefine the office. On the other, I'm defining it the way it should be."

He's certainly redefining the office these days.

When Schwartz was elected last November, voters gave him a chance to prove himself. He surely has shaken their faith by hiring embattled Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald as a "Senior Deputy" in charge of "community outreach" with an annual salary and benefits in excess of $100,000.

That's a pretty paycheck for an ethically challenged former cop currently mired in the middle of a $2.2 million loan scandal involving a children's charity, but Schwartz assures us he knows his man and vouches for his character. Before winning elected office, Schwartz worked as the Finance Director at the state party under McDonald.

Not that the state party's finances took long to count. In an interview with the Review-Journal last week, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller said the Republican National Committee was frustrated by the state party's officials and declined to infuse it with funds because it "couldn't trust who they were running that money through."

Now there's a ringing endorsement for Schwartz's new "Senior Deputy Treasurer."

Trouble is, McDonald is a little hard to find on the state treasurer's website. The organization chart hasn't been updated since February, a few months before McDonald was hired. The staff profiles were updated in August, and McDonald's smiling face wasn't among the treasurer's senior employees. Maybe he was too busy reaching out to the community to take a picture.

But that made me wonder whether the treasurer's office was bustling with senior deputies under Schwartz's intriguing leadership. Turns out it's not. Far from it.

There's Chief Deputy Tara Hagan, a former senior deputy with experience at the treasurer's office and a journalism and political science degree from the University of Iowa. In February, she was listed as a senior deputy for the north.

There's former Senior Deputy Sheila Salehian, whose staff profile lists her as deputy for Southern Nevada. Although her title has been shortened, she's long on experience with more than 20 years in the financial services industry and a business administration degree from the University of Iowa. In February, she was listed as a senior deputy for the South.

That's not many. Hagan and Salehian served as senior deputies under previous State Treasurer Kate Marshall. And in case you're wondering, the office under Marshall ran quite efficiently without a senior deputy in charge of community outreach on the payroll.

McDonald's resume may lack a degree in business administration or finance, but it includes an ethics violation as a Las Vegas City Councilman and felonious friends such as topless bar owners Mike Galardi and Rick Rizzolo. It's just a suggestion, but maybe Schwartz should leave that off the staff profiles page.

Informed sources say McDonald's desk is located in the Unclaimed Property department, the treasurer's version of the "Lost and Found." Speaking of seldom found, do you wonder how often other treasurer's office employees have seen the new senior deputy in recent months?

Want to bet it isn't often?

Do you wonder how those employees feel having someone with so little experience and so much controversy vaulting over them into a high-paid senior position?

But, who knows, perhaps this is all part of Schwartz's vision to define the office, "the way it should be."

Of course, it's also possible this is an example of political patronage coming at taxpayer expense.

Either way, it's time to add Michael McDonald to your organization chart, Mr. Treasurer.

He's your problem now.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Contact him at 702 383-0295, or jsmith@reviewjournal.com. Follow him: @jlnevadasmith