Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2001 | 10:13 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Feeling the sting of public criticism, the state Board of Examiners Tuesday decided to delay, at least temporarily, approval for any more high-ranking state officials to draw both their pay and their pension.
Approvals have been granted in some cases in accordance with a law passed by the 2001 Legislature that allows hard-to-replace workers in critical positions to receive not only their current salaries but pensions from previous state jobs.
Gov. Kenny Guinn took a shot at Assemblyman Douglas Bache, D-Las Vegas, who has complained the new law was aimed at enticing schoolteachers back into the classroom and not rewarding high paid state officers.
Guinn said Bache "really irritated me" with his criticism of the Examiners Board approving the double payment for Dick Kirkland, the director of the state Department of Public Safety, and for his deputy and an administrative aide.
Guinn said Bache, as chairman of the Assembly Government Affairs Committee that processed the legislation, never even read the bill.
"He doesn't know what's in the bill," said Guinn, who is chairman of the Examiners Board.
In the future, Guinn said, he is going to "closely watch" any of the bills that come out of Bache's committee.
Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa, also a board member, said there "has been a firestorm but that's due to a lack of the full picture."
Reached later, Bache replied, "I know what the law says and I expect the public entities to use common sense in applying it."
He said he did not want to see governments using it for "high ranking public officers with high salaries."
Bache said earlier he intends to ask for a bill in the 2003 Legislature to stop the practice.
The Examiners Board Tuesday received a briefing on the law from George Pyne, executive director of the Nevada Public Employees Retirement System, who said the law covers all public employees, not just schoolteachers.
A 1981 law, Pyne said, allows a retired public employee, elected to a governing board, to draw both his pay and retirement benefits. There is also a law permitting the Legislature to hire a retired employee and still draw the pension.
"The Legislature has got its own little gold pot," Guinn said. At least three permanent staff members in the legislative branch draw both pay and pension.
Jacqueline Sneddon, for example, chief clerk of the Assembly, worked 30 years in the executive branch before retiring. She later went to work for the Legislature and draws both pension and pay.
The law is used mainly to hire temporary staff during the Legislature. Retired state employees serve as secretaries, sergeants at arms and other duties during the session without losing their pensions during the five-month stint.
The Examiners Board decided to gather more information before allowing any more employees to collect pensions. But Guinn indicated there would be future approvals in critical positions.
The governor noted that people who draw pensions from other states can work for state government without losing their retirement benefits. Many of the Capitol Police have retired from the Los Angeles Police Department and are drawing full pension and their Nevada pay.
Kirkland, who is paid $103,000 a year, is also drawing his $70,000 retirement earned as a police officer and later as Reno Police chief.
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