Penny Press Nevada, USA Volume 8 Number 35 May 19, 2011 THE PENNY PRESS,May 19, 2011 PAGE 2 www.pennypressnv.com The Penny Press is published weekly by Penny Credits: Ely Radio LLC All Contents © Penny Press 2011 Publisher and Editor: Contributing Editors: Letters to the Editor are encouraged. They should be Press Fred Weinberg Floyd Brown Al Thomas sent to our offices at 335 W. 4th Street Winnemucca, NV Logotype Doug French Chuck Muth 891445 They can also be emailed to: pennypresslv@ Pointedlymad John Getter Pat Choate gmail.com No unsigned or unverifiable letters will be licensed from: printed. Rich Gast 702-418-0433 Fax: 702-920-8215 Penny Press WINNEMUCCA, NEVADA 16 PAGES VOLUME 8 NUMBER 35 May 19, 2011 We're From The Government And We're Here To Help Us By STEVEN MILLER the Community College of Southern cials — caught out by damning being paid a legislator’s salary and Special To The Penny Press Nevada (now called the College of information about to be made public per-diem expenses as an active state Southern Nevada). by R-J reporters probing Williams’ lawmaker. It was late November 2003, But it wasn’t those issues that personal use of his city-issued cell For the 2003 session, Williams and for Las Vegas city employee were bringing him before the city phone — suddenly announced that agreed to repay the city $6,765 and state Assemblyman Wendell council on Nov. 25. Rather, it was the assemblyman would repay the for hours he did not work but for Williams, the days were dwindling the fact that, for weeks, reporters city $1,844 for personal calls made which he had submitted false time down to a precious few. at the Las Vegas Review-Journal over a 13-month period — the very cards and had been paid. It harkened For months, he’d been in politi- had been turning up more and more period of the newspaper’s request. suspiciously back to 1997, when abuses by Williams of his position as Significantly, city officials made Williams had also been required to a city employee. those arrangements with Williams repay the city — that time nearly Commentary And it was dawning on voters on the same day that reporters were $4,000 — after it was discovered he — assisted by reporters, columnists at last receiving the assemblyman’s had received full-time pay for two and editorial writers at the two major city cell-phone records that the paper weeks of the legislative session. At cal hot water. Now the city council Las Vegas papers — that in this ava- had requested. the time, city officials had publicly had scheduled a special hearing that lanche of preferential treatment for a One day after breaking the cell- blamed the overpayments on “cleri- appeared to be his last chance to powerful politician that was creating phone story, the Review-Journal cal errors.” save his $86,000-a-year city job. problems across the state, the City came out with another blockbuster: In 2003, city officials had at Disclosures of Williams’ mul- of Las Vegas had never been a mere During each of the 2003, 2001, least twice sought to conceal the full tiple driving and scofflaw-court innocent bystander. 1999 and 1997 legislative sessions, scope of Williams’ fraud against city transgressions across the state had But that, of course, was what the Williams had finagled ways to “dou- taxpayers: been followed by revelations of city wanted the public to believe. ble-dip” - to get paid for doing his In response to the newspaper’s scandalous deals with the brass at Two months earlier, city offi- city job at the same time he was request for all of Williams’ “pay Continued on page4 The Conservative Weekly Voice Of Las Vegas FLOYD BROWN PAGE 5 Penny Wisdom FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6 Inside: DOUG FRENCH PAGE 7 A liberal is a man too broad- AL THOMAS PAGE 10 Why Many Sane minded to take his own side in a quarrel. MATT BARBER PAGE 11 People Won't Run —Robert Frost HOWARD RICH PAGE 14 PETS OF THE WEEK PAGE 15 See Editorial Page 6 THE PENNY PRESS,May 19, 2011 PAGE 4 It Takes One To Lobby One Continued from page 3 Arberry had in the state legislature. records” for January through July, [reported the R-J,] city officials provided But there would be no independent inquiry. only a summary of revised time sheets, which made no mention of the thou- None of the city’s higher-ups — administrators or elected officials — sands of dollars in pay discrepancies. saw any percentage in risking an investigation that might get out of con- When questioned last week about the lawmaker’s pay while he was in trol. Carson City, city officials also did not acknowledge that they had them- An independent investigator, after all, might well parade before vot- selves questioned the hours he claimed during the legislative session. ers some of the massive evidence suggesting what had been the city’s The Review-Journal interviewed Williams’ boss, Neighborhood Services actual policy: hiring, as city employees, powerful state lawmakers precisely Director Sharon Segerblom, the day after Williams signed an agreement to because they were powerful state lawmakers. return to the city more than a quarter of his 2003 pay. She said she “had no Political scientists regularly note that if government can evade consti- reason to question” his time sheets. tutional separation-of-power provisions, collusion between actors in the “In the communication I had with him, I had no reason to think he separate branches at the expense of voters and taxpayers easily follows. wasn’t working,” Segerblom said Sept. 25. As Williams’ last-chance hearing proceeded, council members admit- Williams’ timecard had, however, been an issue for months, officials ted that they were looking at only the tip of the iceberg. Yet other council admitted Friday. members just wanted to end any look at the imbroglio at all and quickly During the 2001 legislative session, too, R-J reporters found, Williams “move on,” without probing deeper. That, of course, spoke volumes about had wangled full-time city pay by spuriously billing taxpayers for sick pay, the actual culture operating within the city’s leadership. vacation pay and holiday pay. But even more direct evidence was being placed clearly on the record. According to a breakdown by Las Vegas Sun editorial writers, the The de facto policy that had existed within city management when she assemblyman had “billed the city for the entire time the Legislature was in had been a deputy city manager in the early 1990s, said the now-council- regular session at his then-wage of $36 an hour. Williams also was brazen in woman, Lynette Boggs McDonald, had been quite clear. collecting 208 hours of sick time, 112 hours of vacation time and 32 hours City officials, she said, definitely wanted legislators on the city pay- of holiday time during that period.” roll — because they “added value.” The Sun also noted that Morse Arberry — at the time chairman of the No other city bigwig at the hearing wanted to touch that radioactive Assembly’s powerful Ways and Means committee — had used the same factoid with a 10-foot pole. ploy in the 1997, 1999 and 2001 legislative sessions when he, too, was a Williams himself, however, was more than happy to elaborate. state lawmaker being paid to nominally work in the city’s Neighborhood Given his position as a lawmaker, he said, city officials would call him Services department. to “open doors” in the Legislature that regular employees — i.e., hired lob- “Based on the information that has been slowly trickling out about byists — could not. Williams — and now about Arberry,” counseled the Sun, “the city should The assemblyman didn’t seem to get it: Proving the collusion by city ask a government agency or someone not affiliated with the local govern- government — to those in city government and before the news media — ment to conduct an independent investigation.” The obvious problem with only made him more radioactive. the investigation that the deputy city manager was supposedly conducting, Within 10 days, he’d been fired. noted the editorial, was the “questions as to whether the city government Steven Miller is vice president for policy at the Nevada Policy Research itself has some culpability in this affair,” given the power Williams and Institute. For more visit http://npri.org/. THE PENNY PRESS,May 19, 2011 PAGE 5 Commentary: Floyd Brown their prospects and the latest news. Also last week, the new website News is quiet from up north. She has With Obama We believe that had he chose prayforhuckabee.com went online. brought on some talented political to run, former Arkansas Governor On the website Governor Huckabee people such as old Bob Dole hand, Vulnerable, Mike Huckabee was the odds on sounded more like a candidate say- Michael Glassner, but beyond some favorite to win the Republican nomi- ing, “When I look across America, kick butt speeches she gives at Tea Republicans nation. Huckabee had been quiet, I see a country looking for answers. Party rallies and Facebook post- but some impressive reports have The challenges facing our nation are ings, she hasn’t been out building a Jockey In The surfaced. monumental, and I see difficult days ground game. First, it is reported that if he ahead. I am seeking God’s will con- Former Speaker Newt Gingrich: Starting Gates ran, Ronald Reagan’s confident and cerning the role He wants me to play Newt is always full of surprises.