Joe Heck lays off five despite priority of job creation

By Delen Goldberg

Monday, Jan. 10, 2011 | 2 a.m.

Rep. Joe Heck has said job creation is his top priority. His election to Congress has so far cost five people their jobs.

Five days before being sworn in to represent Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District, Heck, a Republican, dissolved his consulting business, Specialized Medical Operations, and laid off its staff.

Running the company, which trained security companies, law enforcement and the military, presented a conflict of interest because the bulk of its business was government contracts. “There was no way we could figure out how to have personnel run it without me being integrally involved,” Heck said.

The potential for conflicts associated with the business wasn’t lost on Democrats during the election. They accused him of “double-dipping” because he collected multiple government contracts while receiving a state Senate paycheck.

Heck — who served in the state Senate from 2004 to 2008 while overseeing his business — wrote off the concerns about his dual roles of businessman and elected official to politics.

Specialized Medical Operations since 1993 held 11 consulting contracts worth almost $1 million with the Southern Nevada Health District. The most recent paid $100 an hour. Heck’s company also landed at least two contracts with Metro Police worth up to $216,000.

His five former employees are “in varying degrees of unemployment,” Heck said.

After winning the election, Heck said he warned clients he might have to withdraw from contracts. Still, he told the Sun he hoped to continue running his company if it posed no ethical issues.

One former employee plans to start a similar business and hopes to hire some of the other former workers.

Heck, an emergency room physician, also wanted to continue working as a doctor while serving in Congress. But that would pose another conflict of interest because he was named to the Education and Labor Committee, which has a hand in deciding legislative health proposals, including funding and regulation.

Heck will be able to serve in the Army Reserves, as he has for years, and practice medicine in that role. But the double hit he’ll take as a doctor and businessman will put a significant strain on his finances despite his $174,000 congressional salary.

That might explain why he plans to sleep in his House office rather than rent an apartment.