MINUTES OF THE meeting

of the

ASSEMBLY Committee on Government Affairs

 

Seventy-First Session

February 8, 2001

 

 

The Committee on Government Affairswas called to order at 8:06 a.m., on Thursday, February 8, 2001.  Chairman Douglas Bache presided in Room 3143 of the Legislative Building, Carson City, Nevada.  Exhibit A is the Agenda.  Exhibit B is the Guest List.  All exhibits are available and on file at the Research Library of the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

 

 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Mr.                     Douglas Bache, Chairman

Mr.                     John J. Lee, Vice Chairman

Ms.                     Merle Berman

Mr.                     David Brown

Mrs.                     Vivian Freeman

Ms.                     Dawn Gibbons

Mr.                     David Humke

Mr.                     Harry Mortenson

Mr.                     Roy Neighbors

Ms.                     Bonnie Parnell

Mr.                     Bob Price

Ms.                     Debbie Smith

Ms.                     Kathy Von Tobel

Mr.                     Wendell Williams

 

 

GUEST LEGISLATORS PRESENT:

 

John C. Carpenter, Assembly District No. 33

 

STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Eileen O’Grady, Committee Counsel

Dave Ziegler, Committee Policy Analyst

Cheryl Meyers, Committee Secretary

 

OTHERS PRESENT:

 

Michael J. Franzoia, Mayor, City of Elko

Thomas J. Grady, Executive Director, Nevada League of Cities

Michelle L. Fitzpatrick, Judge of the Las Vegas Municipal Court

Dan Musgrove, Legislative Advocate, City of Las Vegas

Cedric Kearns, Judge of the Las Vegas Municipal Court

Burt Brown, Judge of the Las Vegas Municipal Court 

 

      Chairman Bache introduced a Bill Draft Request (BDR).

• BDR 10-410 – Revises provisions governing unclaimed property. 

      This BDR would normally be covered by Government Affairs; however, it was referred to the Assembly Committee on Judiciary because of all the chapters. The basic change in the BDR involved the amount of time that an owner had to reclaim property before liquidation, from five years down to three years.  Chairman Bache asked for a motion for introduction.

 

               ASSEMBLYMAN NEIGHBORS MOVED THAT BDR 10-410 BE REFERRED    TO THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE.

         MOTION SECONDED BY ASSEMBLYMAN LEE.

         MOTION CARRIED WITH ALL MEMBERS PRESENT VOTING AYE.

********

Assembly Bill No. 11:  Revises charter of City of Elko. (BDR S-805)

Assemblyman Carpenter, District No. 33, introduced Michael Franzoia, Mayor of Elko, and indicated that the Mayor would explain the changes to the charter of Elko.  Mr. Carpenter testified that he wanted to propose an amendment to A.B. 11.  Changes to the section in A.B. 11 that referred to the open meeting law would be included in the amendment.  Mr. Carpenter suggested that the proposed amendment, as set forth in Exhibit C, complied with the open meeting law. 

 

Chairman Bache asked the Mayor to begin his presentation.

Mr. Franzoia spoke on behalf of himself and the Elko Board of Supervisors in support of A.B. 11.  He testified the bill would change the Elko charter, current titles and practices. Mr. Franzoia read aloud from a one-page handout (Exhibit D).  He noted the citizens of Elko have been referring to the Board of Supervisors as “City Councilmen” for over 20 years.  The issue has been confusing to the public. 

 

Mr. Franzoia concurred with the amendment proposed by Mr. Carpenter.  The Board of Supervisors’ intent has always been to be able to structure their charter to comply with the open meeting laws. He noted the amendment reflected that special meetings may be called by the mayor or a majority board but would still be subject to the open meeting law.  The amendment does not inhibit emergency powers in dealing with health and safety issues of the public.  Mr. Franzoia thanked the committee and asked for their endorsement of A.B.11.

 

Thomas Grady, Executive Director, Nevada League of Cities spoke to reflect the comments of Mr. Franzoia who mentioned that Elko was the only city in Nevada whose leaders were referred to as “supervisors.” He noted that Carson City was a consolidated government and board members are called “supervisors.”  All of the Nevada League of Cities used the title of city council.  Mr. Grady endorsed the changes and the amendment.  He thanked Mr. Carpenter for suggesting the amendment to correct the omission of the open meeting law portion. 

 

Chairman Bache asked for questions of the committee members.

Assemblyman Brown questioned if the mayor was considered a member of the city council.  He needed clarification, failing to see a definition in A.B. 11.

 

Mr. Franzoia said the mayor was a member of the city council, and as such, he could make and second motions and vote.

 

Mr. Brown also wanted clarification on the discussion of the majority vote of the city council.  He questioned whether the vote would then be three to five votes and not three to four.

 

Mr. Franzoia stated that was correct; it would be three to five.

Mr. Bache inquired if there were any further questions from members of the committee and seeing none he thanked the guests.  He posed to the room that if there were guests who would like to speak to the committee on A.B.11, they could speak at that time. 

 

Chairman Bache, seeing none, closed the hearing on A B.11.

Assembly Bill No. 22:  Amends charter of City of Las Vegas to authorize city council to extend terms of municipal judges.  (BDR S-858)

 

Assemblyman Lee extended a welcome to Supreme Court Justice Myron Leavitt, who was in the audience to observe the legislative process.  Mr. Lee noted that he was present to propose a city of Las Vegas charter bill.  He also stated that the bill would not affect any other municipality except the city of Las Vegas. A.B. 22 would allow the Las Vegas City Council to increase the terms of municipal court judges from a four-year term to a six-year term.  He stated that currently there were six municipal court judges in the city of Las Vegas.  He mentioned that another component of the bill was that it would allow at least one-third of the judges to be elected every two years.

 

Mr. Lee presented background on the Las Vegas Municipal Court system and stated they were a limited jurisdiction court and a court of record.  He observed statistics that are noted in Exhibit E and Exhibit F regarding the number of traffic and non-traffic misdemeanors that are handled by the city of Las Vegas municipal court judges.

 

Mr. Lee stated some of the questions that would be posed on this bill would include: how it would benefit the citizens of Las Vegas; how the municipal court system would work hand-in-hand with the city council; and how does judicial review work, and has it ever been tested. Mr. Lee then introduced Judge Michelle Fitzpatrick from the Las Vegas Municipal Court.  Mr. Lee also referenced other judges not present but included in Exhibit E.

 

Michelle L. Fitzpatrick, Judge of the Las Vegas Municipal Court, represented the court and was present to discuss the bill before the committee.  Judge Fitzpatrick gave background on members of the judiciary that are elected in the state of Nevada.  The judges were elected to six-year terms with the exception of municipal court judges. She stated that in Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks and North Las Vegas, all municipal court judges were elected to four-year terms.  She informed the committee that district court judges, Supreme Court judges and justices of the peace are all elected to six-year terms.  She noted it was significant that justices of the peace had concurrent jurisdiction with municipal court judges in Las Vegas.  Even though justices of the peace handled some civil and some felony preliminary cases, both courts handled misdemeanors, with the justices of the peace serving six-year terms and municipal court judges only serving four-year terms.

 

Judge Fitzpatrick noted that A.B.22 would offer equality and consistency within the Las Vegas judiciary.  All of the judges elected would be consistent with the six-year term.  She reiterated what Mr. Lee had mentioned to the committee, that the workload in the Las Vegas Municipal Court was tremendous.  She mentioned that in her courtroom there were over 26,000 appearances in the year 2000.  She added a six-year term would allow judges more time to work on those cases.  A six-year term would alleviate the time spent campaigning for election when they had such a heavy workload. 

 

Judge Fitzpatrick addressed the issue of what would happen if a bad judge were elected to the bench. She indicated there was a system in place to protect the people of the state of Nevada if that situation should occur.  Nevada had the Judicial Discipline Commission, a very aggressive governing ethics body of the judiciary.  The commission would act upon complaints brought by any citizen, would investigate the complaint, and would take any appropriate disciplinary action, including removal of a judge. She reiterated that A.B. 22 would give the opportunity to the legislature to help create equality and consistency in the judiciary, including promoting a more independent and unbiased judiciary.  She mentioned that the Las Vegas City Council had passed a resolution in support of A.B. 22 indicating they understood the importance of having judges in the court versus having them out campaigning for election.

 

Chairman Bache called on Assemblyman Price who had a question for Judge Fitzpatrick.  Mr. Price asked Judge Fitzpatrick if the new bill would extend the terms of judges who are in office currently, or would it only affect new judges that would be elected.

 

Judge Fitzpatrick responded that she did not believe it would extend the term of any current judge. 

 

Chairman Bache invited other questions from members of the committee.

 

Assemblyman Mortenson told Ms. Fitzpatrick to please restate that there was an entity with which a private citizen could file a complaint against a judge and have it investigated.

 

Judge Fitzpatrick responded that the Judicial Discipline Commission was the governing ethics body of the Nevada judiciary.  Any citizen can make a complaint against a particular judge, which would then be examined for probable cause.  If probable cause is found, and an ethics violation had occurred, the issue would become public.  She indicated there could be public hearings, and authority has been given to the commission to discipline the judge in question.

 

The Chairman asked for any other questions from members of the committee and recognized Mr. Musgrove, Legislative Advocate for the city of Las Vegas.

 

Mr. Musgrove added in closing that A.B. 22 was a natural extension of S.B. 314 of the Seventieth Session, which was sponsored by Senator Rhoads.  S.B. 314 of the Seventieth Session dealt with changing the terms of the judges and allowed for the city charter to be changed when the charter was in place.  The city council would at that time pass a resolution, as noted by Judge Fitzpatrick, to change the terms of the judges.  Mr. Musgrove added the reason they were before the committee was to ask that the charter be amended so the city council could fix the terms.

 

Assemblywoman Gibbons was concerned the term limit would exclude some judges from having a full six-year term because of new elections. 

 

Judge Fitzpatrick responded that her understanding was the city council would stagger terms for each department.  She indicated when Judge Walsh’s term ended in two years she would be able to run for a six-year term.  The city council staggered terms so veteran judges were always on the bench to help newly appointed judges.  Staggering would also help create excitement with voter turnout when there would be judges on the ballot with city councilmen and mayors.

 

Assemblywoman Freeman queried Mr. Lee, as sponsor of the bill, if the voters thought a judge needed to be removed from the bench, did the voters have the tools in place to do so.

 

Mr. Lee responded that the judiciary review system had been tested with two incidents in Clark County.  The issues that were brought before the judiciary review seemed to work with the removal of one judge from Clark County.  He was satisfied that the system worked, even to the Supreme Court.  He did not feel there were any impediments to the system.

 

Assemblywoman Von Tobel raised concern that existing judges might ask for a mid-term pay raise when the newly elected judges in the six-year term would be making substantially more money than their colleagues.  The voters, she noted, have turned down mid-term pay raises in the past.

 

Mr. Dan Musgrove responded that a municipal court judge’s salary had been set by the city council.  The judges entered into employment at a base salary and received cost of living increases during their terms.  The city council determined the salary as they have done for all employees of the city.

 

Ms. Von Tobel queried if judges were already getting pay raises during their four-year term.

 

Mr. Musgrove responded that was correct and was a determination made by the city council.

 

Mrs. Gibbons cited Mr. Lee’s proposed amendment (Exhibit G) as clarifying some of her earlier concerns.

 

Chairman Bache asked for further questions and mentioned the relationship of father-daughter between Judge Fitzpatrick and Justice Leavitt who was present in the committee room.

 

Chairman Bache asked for testimony from Judge Burt Brown and Judge Cedric Kearns in Las Vegas.  No testimony was given and Mr. Bache asked the committee if there were further questions.

 

Seeing no further questions from the audience in Las Vegas or in the committee room, Chairman Bache closed the hearing on A.B.22.

 

The Chair reminded the committee members they would be having a presentation on the Personal Employee Benefits Program. He suggested reviewing notes from last session when the committee did a considerable amount of work on the insurance benefit plan.  Mr. Bache announced that the committee would probably take action on some of the bills that had been heard over the past week.  He asked if there was other committee business and seeing none adjourned the meeting at 8:35 a.m.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

Cheryl Meyers

Committee Secretary

 

APPROVED BY:

 

 

                       

Assemblyman Douglas Bache, Chairman

 

 

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