Assembly overrides veto of bill on temporary hiring

CARSON CITY -- Just five days after Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly resigned a temporary state consulting job, the Assembly on a 41-0 vote Saturday overrode a veto by Gov. Jim Gibbons of a bill that gives the Legislature control over hiring of temporary and other executive branch employees.

In overriding Gibbons' veto of Assembly Bill 463, Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said it is incidents like the Weekly hiring that prompted the need for the bill.

"We just saw what happened," she said. "Do we just tell our constituents we were just kidding about hiring these kind of consultants?"

Under the bill, the Legislature's Interim Finance Committee would have to approve consultants hired through temporary employment agencies.

Restrictions also would be placed on hiring former state employees for consulting jobs with state agencies.

During a Wednesday hearing, Larry Mosley, the director of the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, announced that Weekly had resigned a day earlier from a part-time job as an outreach coordinator for a green initiative work program his agency was developing. Estimates are he would have been paid $48 to $55 an hour.

Mosley had hired Weekly from the Manpower temporary employment agency, saying it was a quicker way to hiring him than going through the state personnel system.

The state Senate still must override the veto.