Column: Public employees shouldn't be serving on money committees

"Ethics: Grub first, then ethics...."

Bertolt Brecht

With the political season right around the corner it's time to talk about a badly needed law we citizens need passed which will prohibit public employees who are elected to the Legislature from serving on the money committees; that is, Assembly, Taxation, Assembly Ways and Means, Senate Taxation and Senate Finance.

Why, you ask? Because it's a conflict of interest when public employees are in a position to influence votes or actually vote on money legislation which directly or indirectly affects them.

The biggest offenders are teachers, ex-teachers, active and retired members of public school administration, university employees, consultants to public education and legislators who are married to teachers. Many are active members of the teachers union.

Some will tell you the so-called Ethics Commission has looked into this and found it not to be a conflict of interest in the accepted legal sense. But I challenge that because of past Ethics Commission problems, and I don't think it's ever been reviewed in truthful, factual context. Furthermore, I don't think the Ethics Commission can get to the restroom and back without seeing-eye dogs!

I've tried to ascertain just how many of last session's legislators are in some way tied to public education, and it's almost impossible because some of them deliberately use obscured past and present job titles in their official resumes. The best I could come up with was about 20 percent of all legislators were in some way tied to public education and/or public service. That's an alarming number considering that most of them try to get assigned to the money committees.

Now if there's no conflict of interest, how come state employees, except those tied to the university system, can't serve as legislators? Because the Nevada Constitution perceives a conflict of interest and prohibits same. If teachers can take unpaid leave to serve in the Legislature, why can't state employees? If there's a conflict of interest for one category of public employees, then there's most assuredly a conflict for all categories of budgeted public employees, especially educators, since public education gets the most General Fund money.

We taxpayers are being screwed over royally by public employees serving on money committees. Even Morse Arberry, the chairman of Assembly Ways and Means, the most important money committee along with Senate Finance, is a public employee working for the city of Las Vegas. Nice, eh? These people vote on appropriations and tax distributions for their own areas of the state and that's not considered a conflict? Hell, even if they abstain from voting on specific appropriations affecting their own districts, they still have power and influence. Why do you suppose the city of Las Vegas allows Arberry to take leave to serve in the legislature?

Now, there are two reasons why what I'm proposing here won't fly without your help: One is if the Democrats are once again the majority party in the Assembly, they'll never allow legislation to be introduced and heard prohibiting public employees from serving on money committees. This is because public employees elected to the Legislature, and especially teachers, are almost all Democrats! Also, many friendships crossing party lines develop during every legislative session, making some legislators reluctant to vote against their colleagues.

The other reason is, if Republicans are once again the majority party in the Senate, Majority Leader Bill Raggio won't allow a bill outlawing public employees from serving on money committees because it would prohibit his long-time esteemed colleague, Ray Rawson, from serving on Senate Finance. Sen. Rawson, a Republican, is a professor in our community college system.

I can certainly empathize with him on that score, but when carefully considered, it seems to me that sacrificing Rawson off Senate Finance is a reasonable price to pay for getting Morse Arberry and Chris Giunchigliani off Assembly Ways and Means, and Morse Arberry and Bernie Anderson off Assembly Taxation. There's got to be another reliable Republican in the Senate who could well serve on Senate Finance.

Anyway, we have our long-term future to think about and anyone who's been in the Senate as many years as Bill Raggio should be concerned with Nevada's future. Our future dictates that we clean up our act and rid ourselves of this actual and perceived conflict of interest by legislating all public employees off the Senate and Assembly money committees.

(Bob Thomas is a Carson City businessman, local curmudgeon and former member of the Carson City School Board and Nevada State Assembly.)