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State legislators return to real world
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Laura Myers/Las Vegas Review-Journal
Assemblywoman Olivia Diaz, D-North Las Vegas, holds her baby, Xavier Carson Alejandre. The 3½-month-old was born during the 120-day legislative session in Carson City, the state capital that gave him his middle name. » Buy this photo
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Diaz was visiting the office of Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, on Tuesday to say goodbye. Oceguera needed a cart to wheel out several boxes he packed up from his office on Tuesday, about 12 hours after the 76th session of the Nevada Legislature adjourned. He is termed out after 12 years in the Assembly, so he will not return as speaker in 2013. Laura Myers/Las Vegas Review-Journal » Buy this photo
Two days after the Nevada Legislature finished work early Tuesday, Assemblywoman Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, had to be back on the job.
"I don't get any vacation for a year and a half," said Kirkpatrick, who works for a food services company that supplies Southern Nevada's voracious hotel-casinos and restaurants.
Assemblywoman Irene Bustamante Adams, D-Las Vegas, had the opposite problem -- no job to return to. Instead, the former MGM Resorts International executive who brought minority-owned firms to CityCenter said she was planning to start her own business. The freshman lawmaker said she quit her job after she won the Democratic primary a year ago. The legislative session began Feb. 7.
"My husband has been Mr. Mom," Bustamante Adams said, noting the Army veteran of Afghanistan has been taking care of their two daughters. He just found a new job, she added, saying the couple had been relying on savings. "We're both, hopefully, going to start over."
There's no rest for the weary, as the saying goes, especially for Nevada's 63 part-time citizen legislators who mostly all have day jobs. Many take a leave of absence during the 120-day session held every two years. Some have their own businesses. A few are ranchers or farmers. Many are retired.
On Thursday, Assembly Minority Leader Pete Goicoechea, R-Eureka, was already riding around his Elko ranch, worrying about how the cool spring stunted the growth of hay he needs to feed his cattle.
Unlike most of her colleagues, Assembly Ways and Means Chairwoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, hung around Carson City for a few days last week to wrap up business. She wandered the halls while most of the Legislative Building was emptying out as lawmakers packed up and hit the road.
"I haven't been home in three weeks," said Smith, who had been working such long hours that she didn't want to make the daily commute of more than 30 miles between Sparks and Carson City.
Smith and Kirkpatrick shared an apartment during the 120-day session.
During the final 72-hour push to meet a 1 a.m. Tuesday deadline to adjourn, Kirkpatrick and Smith said they could barely find time to eat, or recall what they'd had to sustain themselves.
"On the last day, my staff was handing me plates of cottage cheese on the floor," Smith said.
The jar of M&Ms on Smith's desk kept running low, with people grabbing handfuls as they stopped to chat or passed by. Smith went through 56 pounds of the chocolate candies during the session.
"The last couple of days you're in the zone," Smith said.
It was a little-to-no sleeping zone.
The last two days, Assembly and state Senate floor sessions lasted into the early morning. And negotiations and conference committees on the most controversial bills went until 3 a.m. or so.
When lawmakers completed work Tuesday morning, they didn't stop to rest.
It was party time at the Bella Fiore wine bar a short walk from the Legislative Building.
Kirkpatrick said she stayed until 3:30 a.m. Smith said she didn't get to sleep until 5 a.m.
Bartender Lisa Hass said she finally closed the place at 6 a.m.
"Pretty much everybody from the session came in," Hass said, putting the crowd at several hundred. "It was an older crowd at first. Some of the last people here were from the Assembly."
Assembly Speaker John Oceguera, D-Las Vegas, and state Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, celebrated with Dom Perignon champagne, including $400 bottles of vintage 1995-96, according to the servers. They passed around an empty bottle for lawmakers to sign.
The late night made it tough waking up the next day. Kirkpatrick woke around 7:30 or 8 a.m. and was late picking up her husband from the Reno airport. The couple planned to drive back to Las Vegas together, all 325 miles or so, a long road at the end of a long legislative session.
"We do it every time," Kirkpatrick said. "Then it's back to work Thursday."
Contact Laura Myers at lmyers @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.
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I'm sure that government per-diem, like government sick pay, accrues.
As I recall, the rate is ~$130/d. No doubt the northern Nevada legislators who live within close commuting distance take advantage of it, too. By the end of the session the shnooks must have *thousands* of dollars left to throw around.
The only reason there are fancy restaurants in Carson City is because of all the lobbying that goes on there. Every two years the 4-star joints restock their inventory of fine French Champagnes and Bordeauxs.
The privqte meals (business with the lobbyists picking up the tab you know) and other perks (including the large banquets and parties they are invited to with elaborate food and plenty of drink) by lobbyists or the party etc overwhelm the pitiful per diem...after all if you are just invited to a party as one of a large group with no individual gifts you do not have to report it as "lobbying"...this is so massive and imbedded that when one legislator turned down such things it was a point of discussion several years ago....
n7v.blogspot.com, There is a specified maximum amount of per diem and it doesn't come close to $500
Oh - these folks are sooo impressed with themselves and WHAT they have accomplished??? Right.
Vote RIGHT People...WE need American Values, Principles, Traditions and Policies.
THESE LEGISLATORS ACCOMPLISHED WHAT? OUR TAXES HAVE BEEN RAISED. THEY DIDN'T SIMPLIFY THE RED TAPE TO OPEN UP A NEW BUSINESS SO MORE JOBS COULD BE HAD. THEY TOOK ANOTHER RIGHT AWAY. THEY HAVE TASKED LAW ENFORCEMENT TO ENFORCE ANOTHER FEEL GOOD LAW. THANKS FOR NOTHING LEGISLATORS.... I WOULD LIKE OUR LEGISLATORS TO REPEAL 3 LAWS FOR EVERY NEW LAW THEY PASS. HAVING LESS LAWS AND MORE FREEDOM. THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A REAL ACCOMPLISHMENT.
Where are the profiles of the legislators who "work" in the real world for the government? Either directly or as contractors. Those would be EXECUTIVE BRANCH employees who are constitutionally prohibited from serving in the Legislature.
Where are the profiles of the legislators who "work" in the real world as *attorneys*? Those would be JUDICIAL BRANCH loyalists who are constitutionally prohibited from serving in the Legislature.
And 'Malous' (0258) has it right. Once these clowns (or their spouses) get elected they get on the career fast track. Think of Michelle Obama and Mark Kelly-Giffords. The only guys profiled in this story who actually *work* are the waiters.
Thank you LAWMAKERS, may you have a good rest, time to reflect and regroup, visit the people and see what effects your work has had upon CITIZENS of Nevada. between sessions, to visit classrooms, talk to teachers and school employees, state employees, discover their plight, now that these folks must live with even less and are required to do MORE. The working environment of Nevada has become less and less desirable, so attracting buyers for those empty foreclosed homes will become more problematic when no one is interested in subjected themselves and their families to the quality of life here. Something to think about.
And all those last minute deals before the session closed....shame, shame, shame! Putting the taxpayers on the hook for $1 billion with NV Energy for those transmission lines and giving them the right for private hearings without public, SHAME SHAME SHAME! It is obvious that the little citizen guy has NO power, influence, or say. Just Jones Vargas, R & R Partners, and the Mining, Casino/Resorts Industries!
Oceguera & Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, celebrated with Dom Perignon champagne, including $400 bottles of vintage 1995-96
A BIG Government victory. Always a reason to celebrate. And what's to stop them? The crooks are on per-diem. The champagne was put on OUR tab.
During the 120 day session LOBBYISTS bought them DOZENS of Magnums.
Debbie Smith does not sound healthy or functional? Is it just the stress, after shock or is she like this all the time? We know she needs Econ 101 and something to explain free markets versus socialist welfare state.
People in large masses may as well be sheep. Their collective intelligence drops to that of the weakest-minded member of the group. They bleat, they panic and are easily herded to safety or to the slaughter by the Democrats
Dina Titus was first elected in 1988 while a professor at UNLV so I am sure she had to take leaves of absence to go to the legislature. She was elected to congress for a two year term and after that brief hiatus she is now back at UNLV teaching one class a year and making about $107,875 a year.
I'm sure that while she was away at the Legislature for all those years missing her classes she was doing her good Socialist work.
By the way how many of you Sheeple make $107,875 a year for basically doing nothing?