Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- State workers who deal with criminals, mental patients and welfare recipients say the high turnover among their colleagues is because wages are not commensurate with their major stress and long hours.
They told the Senate Finance Committee Thursday that Gov. Bob Miller's recommendation for a 3 percent pay raise in each of the next two years is not enough.
Stephanie Babcock, a social worker with the state Welfare Division in Las Vegas, said "everybody laughs" when talking about the Miller plan.
Sam Covelli, senior correctional officer at the Southern Desert Correctional Center at Indian Springs, said 38 officers left in 1996 for higher-paying jobs with cities and counties.
The high turnover means more inexperienced officers and that's a "dangerous situation," Covelli said.
Miller's budget calls for across-the-board increases for state workers, schoolteachers and university faculty. But Robert Gagnier, executive director of the State of Nevada Employees Association, said the state workers should not be lumped with teachers and faculty.
He argued that state wages lag by 9.6 percent behind those of local governments -- not including bonuses given city and county workers. State employees don't qualify for bonuses, he argued.
Finance Committee Chairman William Raggio, R-Reno, noted the Legislature in 1995 gave state workers a 5 percent raise and a 3 percent increase in 1996. Legislative fiscal analysts said it would cost an extra $4.5 million to give state workers an added 1 percent raise.
The cost for giving an added 1 percent raise to schoolteachers, university faculty and state employees would be about $16 million.
The governor has recommended extra pay ranging from 5-10 percent for some groups such as law enforcement, Parole and Probation and Capitol and university police. Gagnier said that's welcome but it falls far short of what's needed, especially for correctional officers, forensic specialists and nurses.
Connie Idziak, a psychiatric nurse at the Mental Health Center in Las Vegas, testified she had to work overtime without additional pay and deal with violent patients amid a shortage of staff. She said she works on a ward with the "worst of the worst" and has to be a nurse, a mental-health technician and a janitor. She said she often goes without a meal break.
Richard Grau, an 18-year state employee who now works for Parole and Probation in Las Vegas, said officers handle a high caseload of criminals and are short of staff. And turnover is high because people can make up to $7,000 more by going to work for the federal government or local government.
"Stress is high and morale is low," Grau said. "We work like the devil and we deserve a big pay raise."
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