MINUTES OF MEETING

      ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS

 

      Sixty-seventh Session

      March 31, 1993

 

 

 

The Assembly Committee on Government Affairs was called to order by Chairman Val Z. Garner at 8:06 a.m. Wednesday, March 31, 1993, in Room 330 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada.  Exhibit A is the Meeting Agenda.  Exhibit B is the Attendance Roster.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Mr. Val Z. Garner, Chairman

      Mr. Rick C. Bennett, Vice Chairman

      Mrs. Kathy M. Augustine

      Mr. Douglas A. Bache

      Mrs. Marcia de Braga

      Mr. Pete Ernaut

      Mrs. Vivian L. Freeman

      Mr. Lynn Hettrick

      Mrs. Erin Kenny

      Mrs. Joan A. Lambert

      Mr. James W. McGaughey

      Mr. Roy Neighbors

      Mrs. Gene W. Segerblom

      Mr. Wendell P. Williams

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:

 

      None

 

GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:

 

      None

 

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

      Ms. Dana Bennett

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

 

      Madelyn Shipman, Chief Deputy City Attorney for City of Reno; Mr. Mitch Brust, State Department of Personnel; Ms. Helen Foley, representing Psychomedics; Mr. Bob Gagnier, Executive Director, State of Nevada Employee's Association; Joan Kerschner, Director of State Library and Archives; Ms. Martha Gould, Director, Washoe County Library System; Mrs. Hailie Gunn, Director of Elko, Eureka and Lander Library System; Ms. Anita LaRuy, City of North Las Vegas; Mr. John Grady, Executive Director of Nevada League of Cities.

 

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 354 - Clarifies that municipality may by condemnation acquire property for project within or without municipality.

 

Ms. Madelyn Shipman, Chief Deputy City Attorney for City of Reno, testified AB 354 would ensure the word "acquire" on a project funded through bond monies could also include the ability to condemn property (Exhibit C).  She indicated the word "acquire" was not defined in NRS 268.672 which was city bond law but was defined in Chapter 271 under assessment district law and AB 354 would essentially bring the two together. 

 

There being no further testimony Chairman Garner closed the hearing and entertained a motion to do pass AB 354.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN FREEMAN MOVED TO DO PASS A.B. 354.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN BENNETT SECONDED THE MOTION.

 

      THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Chairman Garner assigned the bill to Mrs. Freeman.

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 355 - Amends provisions governing testing of state employees for use of alcohol or controlled substances.

 

Mr. Mitch Brust, State Department of Personnel, indicated AB 355 primarily clarified the statutes and made several revisions.  Mr. Brust explained AB 355 would:  1) clarify what would be tested in a person, 2) allow for similar treatment for any employee who refused to be tested, and 3) clarify that pre-employment testing would be for drugs only.

 

Mr. Brust expanded his explanation stating Section 1 would eliminate blood testing as it was considered unnecessarily invasive and was not proven to detect marijuana or PCP.  He said the revision in Section 2, subsection 2 would be changed to include any employee who refused to be tested could be subject to disciplinary action, indicating in NRS 284.4065 it did not show law enforcement officers being included as subject to disciplinary action (Exhibit D).  Mr. Brust further said AB 355 would allow an employee to have his blood tested for alcohol or a controlled substance at his own expense if he so desired.  He concluded testing would be to detect the presence of a controlled substance or any other drug.

 

Mrs. Lambert referred to Section 2, subsection 4(b), asking if it was in addition to the test required by the state.  Mr. Brust agreed, commenting it would be at the employee's own discretion to get an independent blood test.

 

Mrs. Lambert questioned how the state would proceed if the state's urine test detected marijuana, but the independent blood test proved negative.  Mr. Brust replied the state would base any action upon the state's test as it would have been done by a certified lab, and blood testing would not detect marijuana.

 

Mrs. Lambert asked why blood testing had been removed from the state testing but was made available to the employee.  Mr. Brust answered it was something which was currently available to the employee and felt the state should not take that right away.  He indicated in a test for a substance which could be detected by both blood and urine the issue could come down to the time frame of the tests or other medical information the employee might offer.

 

Mr. Bennett queried what other drug would a test look for other than a "controlled substance," as referenced by the statement "any other drug."  Mr. Brust explained testing primarily would look for what was considered "the big five," which included amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, PCP and opiates, but there were hundreds of other controlled substances which could be tested.  He gave the example if an individual was suspected of being under the influence of a drug, none of which was revealed in the test, the urine sample could then be resubmitted to the lab to run another series of tests to detect any other drug.

 

Chairman Garner asked if the additional tests would discover prescribed medication.  Mr. Brust agreed they would.

 

Further discussion ensued between committee members and Mr. Brust.

 

Ms. Helen Foley, representing Psychomedics, called attention to a bill which would be introduced in the Senate which would amend the same chapters being discussed under AB 355 and she wanted to discuss it briefly as it related to this bill.  Ms. Foley said Psychomedics was a company which tested hair for the presence of drugs.  She indicated it was an extremely accurate procedure which measured drug molecules permanently entrapped in the hair, and could detect the presence of prior usage of cocaine, marijuana, opiates, methamphetamines and PCP.  Ms. Foley stated this procedure was for pre-employment screening only and could not be used for such things as detection of drug-related auto accidents as the drugs in the body would not immediately show up in the hair.  She described the hair testing procedure.  Ms. Foley stated many major companies in the United States and casinos in Nevada had adopted hair testing in the hiring process. 

 

Ms. Foley indicated she would like to see AB 355 amended to include hair testing along with urine testing.

 

Chairman Garner said if Ms. Foley was proposing an amendment, he would like it in writing and suggested she work with those presenting AB 355 to see if it was agreeable to them, otherwise the committee would deal with the issue when the Senate bill was referred to them.

 

Discussion ensued between committee members and Ms. Foley regarding hair testing.

 

Mr. Bob Gagnier, Executive Director, State of Nevada Employee's Association (SNEA), testified the Nevada State Drug Testing law was sponsored by SNEA, had received considerable work by Assembly and Senate committees in the last session, and hair testing had been specifically excluded in that session.  He stressed if AB 355 was amended to include hair testing, SNEA would strenuously oppose it as it would endanger the concept of trying to improve the quality of personnel life and ensuring people were working drug free in the present, and not include what they did sometime in the past.

 

There being no further testimony, Chairman Garner closed the hearing on AB 355.

 

ASSEMBLY BILL 357 - Directs state librarian to establish pilot project to provide grants to certain public libraries for purchase of books and library materials.

 

Assemblyman Kathy Augustine, Clark County District 12, testified as a proponent of AB 357 (Exhibit E).

 

Mrs. Segerblom said she had discussed AB 357 with the bill drafters, Boulder City and Henderson and indicated she would like an amendment to include Boulder City, Henderson and North Las Vegas in the list of rural public libraries as they were not in the Las Vegas library district.

 

Mrs. Augustine replied the main reason those communities had not been mentioned was the bill discussed rural communities, not communities with a larger population base and that was why Laughlin was listed and Boulder City was not. 

 

Mrs. Segerblom indicated Laughlin belonged to the county group, and the previously mentioned communities did not, so they needed to have a district.

 

Chairman Garner said if Mrs. Segerblom was proposing an amendment to AB 357 which would include other than the rural areas mentioned, she would need to work it out with the sponsors of the bill.

 

Mrs. Augustine reiterated this bill was directed strictly to the rural libraries as those libraries would not have the funding the larger cities of North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City might have.

 

Mr. Williams referenced Section 1, subsection 4 and asked if it would conflict with the intent of "rural libraries" as opposed to "all libraries of the state," which was an inclusive statement.

 

Mrs Augustine deferred to Joan Kerschner.

 

Joan Kerschner, Director of State Library and Archives, testified AB 357 was the result of meetings with all public library directors in the state and the intent was to make a small amount of money go as far as possible.  She stated Exhibit F had a proposed amendment to the bill which should clarify the problem Mrs. Segerblom discussed.  Exhibit F also contained a report of the anticipated amounts available for each public library.

 

Mr. Williams questioned who appropriated the money to the rural libraries listed on Exhibit F.  Ms. Kerschner replied the funding was from the local budgets.

 

Discussion ensued between Mr. Williams and Ms. Kerschner regarding funding to the rural libraries.

 

Chairman Garner referenced Exhibit F, indicating all the money going to Clark County would be distributed to rural libraries in Clark County, and questioned if all the money going to Washoe County would also go to rural libraries.

 

Ms. Kerschner deferred the question to Ms. Gould. 

 

Ms. Martha Gould, Director, Washoe County Library System, indicating she also represented the Nevada Library Association testified in favor of AB 357 (Exhibit G).  She did not directly answer Chairman Garner's question.

 

Mrs. de Braga asked how the bookmobile program was administered.  Ms. Gould answered there were two bookmobile programs in the state, she was not sure what the status of the Lincoln County program was, but the Elko County Library System operated the other program and she felt Mrs. Hailie Gunn could better answer the question.

 

Mrs. de Braga asked about areas such as Eureka and Lander.  Ms. Gould answered those areas were serviced by the Elko program.

 

Mr. Williams asked for a list of library budget appropriations statewide for items other than books.  Ms. Gould indicated she would obtain that information.

 

Further discussion ensued.

 

Mr. Williams felt if AB 357 passed the grant money should be distributed with more going to those areas with a greater need and less to those with more funding available locally, so there would be more parity statewide.

 

Mrs. Lambert asked if it was possible the grant monies could be used as an incentive to leverage private fund raising efforts.

 

Ms. Gould answered she did not see any reason why it could not be used in that respect, but pointed out small communities had little in the way of private resources available.

 

Chairman Garner indicated it was recognized there was a tremendous problem particularly in the rural areas, and he asked Mrs. Augustine to work with Mr. Williams and Mrs. Segerblom to address some of the concerns which had been raised to try to come up with something which could be sent to Ways and Means committee.

 

Mrs. Hailie Gunn, Director of Elko, Eureka and Lander Library System, testified in support of AB 357 (Exhibit H).

 

Ms. Anita LaRuy, City of North Las Vegas, testified in support of AB 357, stating she also would support Mrs. Segerblom's suggested amendment to add Boulder City, Henderson and City of North Las Vegas as the operating budget for North Las Vegas library came out of their general fund. 

 

Mr. John Grady, Executive Director of Nevada League of Cities, spoke on behalf of the cities and Bob Hadfield of Nevada Association of Counties.  He asked the committee to support AB 357 with the proposed amendment to include North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City.

 

There being no further testimony, Chairman Garner closed the hearing on AB 357 reminding Mrs. Augustine, Mr. Williams and Mrs. Segerblom to meet with the library representatives to address the concerns.

 

Chairman Garner requested committee introduction of the following bill draft requests:

 

BILL DRAFT REQUEST S-934 - Authorizes creation of municipal library district in North Las Vegas.

 

BILL DRAFT REQUEST 20-453 - Requires counties hiring permanent residents of United States to obtain certain documentation and makes various changes to provisions relating to employment of deputies of certain county officers.

 

BILL DRAFT REQUEST 22-830 - Authorizes city council when sitting as redevelopment agency to add mayor as member of agency.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN BENNETT MOVED FOR COMMITTEE INTRODUCTION OF B.D.R. S-934, B.D.R. 20-453 AND B.D.R. 22-830.

 

      ASSEMBLYMAN BACHE SECONDED THE MOTION.

 

      THE MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.

 

Chairman Garner informed the committee a representative of the National Guard, either the General or Mr. Pennington, and Mr. John Drew would attend the meeting on March 31 to explain the agreements they had made regarding AB 253.

 

There being no further business to come before committee, the meeting was adjourned at 9:25 a.m.

 

      RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

                             

      LINDA FEATHERINGILL

      Committee Secretary

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Assembly Committee on Government Affairs

March 31, 1993

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