Governor balks at shift of stimulus authority

Chief of staff’s comments ratchet up turf battle with legislators on oversight

Wed, Aug 12, 2009 (2 a.m.)

Gov. Jim Gibbons

Gov. Jim Gibbons

Robin Reedy

Robin Reedy

Power Struggle

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Gov. Jim Gibbons isn’t giving up his authority over federal stimulus money for Nevada, despite the state Legislature’s desire to shift responsibility for tracking the money.

The governor’s budget office — not someone in a job created by the Legislature — will coordinate use of the $2.2 billion in federal stimulus money coming to Nevada, Robin Reedy, Gibbons’ chief of staff, said Tuesday.

The Legislature wants the money to be handled by a coordinator in the state controller’s office.

“The controller can lick the stamp,” Reedy said. “The governor is not going to abdicate his authority.”

Reedy’s comments intensified a turf battle between the Democratic majority in the Legislature and Gibbons, a Republican.

The dispute began after Gibbons sought to create the position of “stimulus czar,” at a salary of $120,000 a year. He wanted the job to be nonclassified, which would have meant he could have appointed anyone he wanted, regardless of qualifications.

Legislators balked, given Gibbons’ past penchant for controversial appointments.

Legislators cut the proposed salary, scaled back the duties and required the state to fill the job through regular personnel hiring procedures to ensure that the winning applicant is qualified.

Gibbons contends that legislators overstepped their authority.

The duties of the job are fundamentally those of accounting. Someone in the state needs to report to the federal government by Oct. 10 on how the stimulus money is being used, department by department.

Reedy’s comments brought strong reactions from lawmakers.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said the dispute was devolving into a “schoolyard fight.”

“This is very troubling to me,” she said. “The governor’s office said they don’t want to slow the process down, yet they don’t want to provide information to the controller. We need to work together and move this forward.”

State Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said, “What we should be doing right now is handling the state’s business in a professional way that gets the job done. Unfortunately, because the governor didn’t get his way, things have become quite petty in the governor’s office.”

Gibbons’ attempt to create a “stimulus czar” position at the Cabinet level required approval by the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee. That body, controlled by Democrats, rejected the proposal. Instead, legislators reduced the job responsibilities and placed the position under state Controller Kim Wallin, a Democrat and a state elected official who is responsible for tracking all state spending.

Republicans opposed the idea. Nonetheless, Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, said he believed the governor’s office is required to follow the vote of the Interim Finance Committee.

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the vote,” Townsend said. “Whether it was a political vote or not, the vote is the vote. It doesn’t have a ‘p’ after it to identify it as a political vote.”

Wallin said her office has been working with the governor’s previous deputy chief of staff, Mendy Elliot, on the stimulus spending. Elliot, who had been the stimulus expert in the office, abruptly left the governor’s employ last month after he gave the chief of staff job to Reedy.

Wallin said the federal reporting requirements direct each state department to file compliance forms to its federal equivalent department and the federal Office of Management and Budget.

“It’s clear to me the governor’s office does not understand reporting requirements,” Wallin said.

If the money isn’t correctly tracked and reported, the federal government could take unspent money earmarked for the state and send it elsewhere, she said.

“The governor is jeopardizing the future of the citizens of Nevada,” Wallin said. “Politics aside, we need to work together.”

Wallin has not filled the job but she said she plans to do so as early as next week.

“I’ll continue to work with agencies on reporting requirements,” she said.

Reedy maintained that the administration will handle the compliance and oversight provisions in the federal stimulus.

But so far, the budget office does not have authority to create a new position, and Reedy conceded that the office “does not have enough existing staff to accomplish the task.” But, she said, “it’s the governor’s priority to make sure no funds are held up.”

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