Lead Yucca Mountain foe gives self, staff unauthorized raises

By Cy Ryan

Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008 | 4:30 p.m.

CARSON CITY – The longtime leader of Nevada’s battle against the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository may have to repay $80,000 for giving himself and his staff an unauthorized 16 percent pay raise.

State legislators were angry when they learned today that Robert Loux, head of the Nuclear Projects Office, had approved the raise. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, called the action unlawful. Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, chairman of the interim finance committee, said it could result in a jail term.

But Mendy Elliott, deputy chief of staff for Gov. Jim Gibbons, told the Legislative Interim Finance Committee that it is proposing that Loux repay the state the extra money he and his five employees received.

Loux told the committee that one of his employees went on catastrophic leave for a year and then resigned. The other five employees had to pick up a 15-20 percent larger workload. Granting the raises was his error, Loux said, but he declined to say whether he would accept the remedy recommended by the Gibbons administration.

Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, said the $80,000 in unauthorized salaries must be paid back but “I’m not sure it should all come from Mr. Loux.” It might be more appropriate for the employees to pay back their share, she said.

Chris Nielsen, legal counsel to Gov. Gibbons, said after the committee meeting that there would be further inquiry and suggestions that the other agency employees share the expense of repaying the salaries would be considered.

Elliott, said the governor’s office has ordered an “administrative audit” of the office to determine if other funds have been misappropriated.

The executive director of the Nuclear Projects Office is appointed by the governor. A source in the Gibbons administration said there is a question now whether Loux should remain in that position.

Nielsen said the Nuclear Projects Commission decides whether to retain Loux.

The extra pay, in effect for 12 months, was discovered when the agency’s budget ran over its appropriation by $72,000. Loux, with the pay raise, was earning $132,000, more than other state government department heads. He has been head of that agency for about 20 years.

Elliott said Loux and the other employees will be returned to the pay level set by the 2007 Legislature, which gave a 2 percent pay increase to state employees as of July 2007 followed by a 4 percent raise this year. She told the finance committee that the retirement pay for the employees will reflect the lower salaries.

Loux is a "non-classified" employee. His agency is under the governor who has the authority to raise his salary without approval of the Legislature. Loux said the governor did not approve his raise.

On Monday, the state Board of Examiners approved a contract from the Nuclear Projects Office for up to $6 million with the law firm of Egan, Fitzpatrick & Maisch to battle designation of Yucca Mountain as the burial ground for high-level nuclear waste.

The attorneys will represent Nevada in court and before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on licensing the site. The commission on Monday moved to review the application of the U.S. Department of Energy to build the repository.

It will take an estimated four years before the regulatory commission makes a decision.