MINUTES OF THE meeting
of the
Assembly committee on ways and means
and senate committee on finance
joint subcommittee on public safety
Seventy-First Session
March 9, 2001
The Assembly Committee on Ways and MeansandSenate Committee on Finance Joint Subcommittee on Public Safety was called to order at 8:08 a.m., on Friday, March 9, 2001. Chairman Lawrence E. Jacobsen presided in Room 2134 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.
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mr. Bob Beers
Mrs. Vonne Chowning
Mrs. Marcia de Braga
Mr. John Marvel
Mr. David Parks
Mr. Richard D. Perkins
SENATE COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT
Senator Lawrence E. Jacobsen (Chairman)
Senator William R. O'Donnell
Senator Joseph M. Neal, Jr.
COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT:
None
STAFF MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mark Stevens, Fiscal Analyst (Assembly)
Gary Ghiggeri, Fiscal Analyst (Senate)
Mark Krmpotic, Program Analyst
Carla Watson, Program Analyst
Kathryn Fosnaugh, Committee Secretary
Chairman Jacobsen asked Richard Kirkland, Director, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, if he had a time frame for the morning. Mr. Kirkland said he was prepared and had no timetable. Senator Jacobsen also asked Jackie Crawford, Director, Nevada Department of Prisons, if she had a time schedule she was working with, and Ms. Crawford said no.
Senator Jacobsen asked Mr. Kirkland to give information regarding the splitting of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and Public Safety. He said he understood that the decision to split the agency into two separate agencies was a controversial subject, and asked for justification for the split. He said it appeared the split was a foregone conclusion.
Mr. Kirkland explained the idea of separating the DMV and Public Safety surfaced with the establishment of the Governor's Fundamental Review Committee. The committee had consisted of legislators, state employees, and businessmen from northern and southern Nevada. The function of the committee was to study all of state government for the purpose of determining the best organizational structure that could be made to improve the state government's delivery of services. Mr. Kirkland said one element that came from the study was to review whether or not the DMV should stand alone as an agency. He said there were several reasons why this issue was raised. One was that by law, the DMV and Public Safety had to be managed by a law enforcement officer, due to public safety issues. Mr. Kirkland stated there had been a history of the public safety side of the department receiving more attention than the DMV side of the department. When decisions regarding the department had to be made, the decision would be affected by the director's law enforcement background. He added that after his eight months working for the office, he realized the DMV side of the department required a "daunting and challenging area of expertise," needing its own level of attention. Mr. Kirkland said the Fundamental Review Committee met many times, across the state, taking testimony from different people. The committee's final report was issued the previous week and recommended that the DMV become a "stand-alone" agency. Mr. Kirkland said he, and Ginny Lewis, Deputy Director, Department of Motor Vehicles, supported the recommendation.
Mr. Kirkland explained that the Public Safety portion of the department would continue to exist as it had been functioning, with only a few changes in personnel. He said they would have to split the Administrative Services Office, which had been providing services to both parts of the department.
Mr. Kirkland said that the Governor had advised him that if Mr. Kirkland made the recommendation to split the agency, it had to be with no additional cost to the budget. The management employees succeeded with that goal, as there had been no additional cost to the budget when compared to the flat budget of FY2001 times two.
Senator Jacobsen asked if the facilities and number of personnel were adequate. Mr. Kirkland answered they had not asked for additional people in any areas, in keeping with the Governor's request of keeping a flat-lined budget. The one exception was with the DMV, because there was a need for additional employees. He said that even with the request for additional employees for the DMV, the department had stayed within its FY2001 cap. Mr. Kirkland, commenting on the facilities, said they could always use more room, but could perform fine with the current facilities.
Senator Jacobsen said years ago Public Safety only dealt with bicycles, motorcycles, and accommodations for the elderly. He said at that time the division was a minor department and no one gave it much consideration. Mr. Kirkland said the department has grown since then, and Senator Jacobsen agreed.
Mr. Marvel asked if there had been a bill introduced regarding the split of the agency. Mr. Kirkland said one had been ordered but he wasn't sure if it had been introduced. Mr. Marvel said that if the bill came through, current discussion might be redundant. He did not want to have to go over the same issue again. Senator Jacobsen said he thought they should proceed.
Ginny Lewis, Deputy Director, Department of Motor Vehicles, introduced herself. She said that the DMV side of the department had faced some huge challenges. The state had reached a point where the DMV was high profile, serving new residents and the increasing population of the state. The department needed full-time commitment and oversight. She stated in her 20 years with the department she had worked under six directors, all with law enforcement background, as required by statute, but the DMV had different needs. They had a high customer service focus that required different training and the mission of the DMV was different than that of the Public Safety area. Ms. Lewis pointed out that even the DMV budget hearings had been scheduled separately from the Public Safety part of the department. That left a director who was trying to deal with two very different components of his department and it had proved to be very challenging for him. The decision to split the department and the budgets was done with a simple approach. She said in the Seventieth Legislative Session, the motor vehicle branch was reorganized to stand on its own. A fiscal unit and a foundation for an administrative service had been established, as those were the areas that were affected in the split. Ms. Lewis continued, and said in order to accomplish the split, they looked at the two divisions that would be affected, the Administrative Services Division and the Director's Office. They looked at the positions within those divisions, looked at the functions of the positions and which division their functions involved, and split them according to whether or not they performed the DMV functions or Public Safety functions. Ms. Lewis said they had only asked for two new positions to accomplish the plan. She said she felt this was an achievable request. The request was for a July 1, 2001, implementation of the split, giving the Public Safety side of the agency time to do some reorganization and reclassification.
Senator Jacobson asked for a tree chart that would identify who was who, and who was responsible for what areas, within each division. Ms. Lewis said she would provide the information requested and added that they had already identified every position and where the position would be placed. Senator Jacobson asked for performance indicators to be included in the chart. He said he thought it was difficult for the committee to picture the structure of the split, because they did not work in the agency and were reliant on what the agencies told them, and the chart would help the committee see who was who.
Mr. Parks said he felt at a disadvantage because he had not seen anything that dealt with the positions, the facilities, and other assets. He asked if they had gone through the entire organization and put together a plan for the split. He said the committee was getting the sense that the split was evolving instead of being planned. Mr. Kirkland answered yes, there was a plan. He said most people expected that reorganization would involve a huge change, but in the split of the DMV and Public Works, only about 1 or 2 percent of the organization would change. Everything else would stay the way it had been. He said the only major change was with the Administrative Services Division. He said he had asked Dennis Colling, Chief, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, to provide a percentage of how much service was supplied to the DMV and how much was supplied to Public Safety. Mr. Kirkland thought the answer was a 60/40 split, so they said 60 percent of their resources and personnel would go to the 60 percent side and 40 percent of their resources and personnel would go to the 40 percent side. Mr. Kirkland said that other than that, the tree chart would look exactly like the tree chart they would see currently, pointing up to the director, but minus the Public Safety side. Mr. Kirkland apologized for not having the chart submitted to the committee previously. Mr. Parks said he was sorry also, but sometimes they had so much material sent to them that it was hard to look at everything very closely. Mr. Kirkland said they would try to get the information to the committee the same day.
Mrs. de Braga asked if the two new positions would be necessary without the split of the agency. Mr. Kirkland said no, but explained the two new positions would not require new money. He said there were increases in income, etc., but nothing would cost more money as far as the budget went, because that stayed within the Governor's request of a flat-line budget.
Senator Neal asked if the organizational chart had changed since the committee had looked at the computer projects requested in the past. Ms. Lewis said that in the Seventieth Legislative Session the DMV had gone through a major reorganization. Senator Neal asked if there had been changes to the original plan for the reorganization, and Ms. Lewis said, no, it was exactly as approved with a minor modification that had been submitted to the Interim Finance Committee in December. She said in the proposed split, what had been requested was for the fiscal unit to be placed under Management Services, a new division under the DMV, and those positions would come under a new Administrative Service Division. She said that there had been one Administrative Service Division, but with the split there would be two. She said there would be 11 positions that would move to the new Administrative Services Division. Senator Neal confirmed that if the department split there would be two Administrative Services Divisions. Senator Neal asked if there would be one director over the two divisions, and Ms. Lewis said no, there would be two directors. It would be a split of the entire department, one Public Safety Department and one Motor Vehicles Department. Senator Neal asked Mr. Kirkland if he would still be in charge of both departments, and Mr. Kirkland said no, he would only be in charge of the Nevada Department of Public Safety and included that he was supporting Ginny Lewis to be the director of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles. Senator Neal said it was his understanding that the two departments had previously been merged and wondered if the Governor had recommended the split. Mr. Kirkland said yes, after the one-and-a-half-year study completed by the Fundamental Review Committee.
Mr. Marvel asked if all the positions that had been authorized through the Interim Finance Committee had been filled. Ms. Lewis answered 57 full-time positions had been approved in February of 2000 for the Motor Vehicle branch and all those positions had been filled. She added in December of 2000, 64 part-time positions had been approved and would be placed in phases; they currently had 12 positions at the Sahara office, 12 positions at the Carey office, and as the offices demonstrated the need for more staff, the positions would be filled. Mr. Marvel asked what the department had accrued in vacancy savings. Ms. Lewis said when the positions had been proposed for the current fiscal year, there had been no additional money, so there would not be a vacancy savings in the field services budget by the end of FY2001.
Mrs. Chowning confirmed that the department would provide an overall chart showing positions, where the positions would be placed, money involved, etc. She said she agreed with Senator Neal that the agency had been through several reorganizations, put together and taken apart, and she wanted to have a chart that would identify where the money was going and from what source it would come. Ms. Lewis said she agreed with Mrs. Chowning and that a chart would show that there would not be a major reorganization, rather a split of the existing department and just a minor reorganization, and agreed to submit the chart, quickly, to the committee.
Senator Jacobsen said the discussion had been positive, and he said that many times it was who you know, not what you know. He said when he had an unhappy constituent, he wanted to talk to the boss, not someone else and then be transferred "up to the boss." He said just to have information was beneficial.
Senator Jacobsen said one concern was that the agency would have to go before the Interim Finance Committee (IFC) at almost every meeting, in order to have adjustments made. He asked Mr. Kirkland if that was anticipated. Mr. Kirkland said the best way to answer the question was that the agency was a "service demand-driven" agency. He added that the reason for past visits before the IFC was Nevada's rising population growth of 66 percent. If that had not happened, there would not have been the need to go before the IFC. He said that the DMV had been Nevada's highest profile agency, because everyone had to go to the DMV, including new residents. He said the Governor's concern was to ensure the DMV was a "showcase" of Nevada's state government. Because of the focus of making the DMV a "showcase," if the state continued to grow, going before the IFC would be a possibility. Mr. Kirkland said that in January of 2000, there were 181,000 transactions for the department. In January of 2001, the transactions had increased to 261,000. Senator Jacobsen said that was the reason for the IFC, to fill in the void where needed. Mr. Kirkland said it was necessary for the IFC to be flexible, and Senator Jacobsen agreed. Senator Jacobsen added that the IFC door was always open.
Senator Jacobsen asked for an explanation of the cost allocation between the two agencies. Mr. Kirkland said the cost allocation caused the department concern as well. He said the cost allocation would result in less service to the constituent, while money was moved around.
Dennis Colling, Chief, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, introduced himself. He said legislators had sent a Letter of Intent to the department the previous session instructing the department to do a cost allocation study, and implementation, for the Director's Office, the Administrative Services Division, and Internal Affairs. He said the same session had allocated $45,000 to pay a contractor to develop a cost allocation methodology. He said the study and implementation had been completed. Mr. Colling directed the committee to Exhibit C, the "2002-2003 Biennium Budget Presentation." He said under the tab labeled "Cost Allocation" there were sections describing the basis for various allocations and the impact of the cost allocation on the various funding sources for the department. Different people in the department had revised the amounts, with effort. He said a second tab was labeled "Direct Cost Distribution" and described the costs attributable to specific budgets. Mr. Colling explained the contractor, DMG-Maximus, Inc., had been the same contractor the state used for statewide cost allocation. He said DMG-Maximus, Inc. used the same methods as they did statewide, and what they had recommended had been implemented.
Senator Jacobsen commented that they had just received the handout during the committee hearing, (Exhibit C), so had not had a chance to review the report, but it appeared that all the major areas were covered.
Mr. Beers asked if the contract for the cost allocation was for a single department or the two departments as they would be, when split. Mr. Colling said the contract had been performed assuming the department was a single entity. He said since the Fundament Review Committee, and the Governor's recommendation for the split, they had gone back and tried to use the cost allocation and made modifications in regard to the split.
Senator Jacobsen asked Mr. Colling to go through the handout, (Exhibit C), and review the items briefly. Mr. Colling introduced Carol English, Assistant Chief, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, and reintroduced Richard Kirkland, Director, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He said the mission of the Administrative Services Division was to provide professional, timely, and accurate support services to the director, the various divisions of the department, and other associated agencies. He said the support services were Fiscal Accounting, Personnel Services, Travel Arrangements, Payroll, Warehousing, Inventory Control, Mail Services, Facilities Management, and Budget Analysis. He said they did the "grunt work," helping the other divisions function, as needed. He said the division had stayed within the FY2001 times two budget limit, per the Governor's instructions. He said the division had not asked for any new positions. He asked that the division be continued with 63.51 positions. He continued and explained the budget had been funded primarily through the Highway Fund, with a small amount from the General Fund. He said the method of funding had been changed during the last legislative session. He reiterated that the Letter of Intent had been implemented and they had contracted for a cost allocation method with DMG-Maximus, Inc.
Mr. Colling directed the committee to the budget presentation, (Exhibit C), and reviewed the tab labeled "Revenue Recap." He said the first chart highlighted a ten-year recap of the funding for the state and local government, which had been raised by the department. Mr. Colling said that the department was proud that they continued to perform their duties as a fund-raiser for the state. He said they were projecting over $500 million for the state, in the second year of the current biennium. He said the $500 million did not include the gasoline tax, moved from the Department of Taxation to be under the administration of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He said when that move had taken place, the department would raise close to $1 billion for the state.
Mr. Colling said the second area under the same tab was labeled "Revenue Projections." He said the section covered the department's projections for revenue to be raised during the next two years of the biennium.
Mr. Colling then highlighted the "Bad Debt" section of the handout, (Exhibit C). He explained that that section had a chart that showed the dollar amount of bad checks received by the department, the number of bad checks received, and the total number of checks received by the department, beginning in 1988. Mr. Colling said the next page showed the breakdown of the penalties recovered by the department, starting with 1999. Mr. Colling said the department was pleased with its performance in this area. The amount of recovery had increased every year. Mr. Colling said he could not say that the recovery amount would double in FY2001, as in the past two to three years, but the estimate for recovery was around 80 percent over FY2000. Mr. Colling said in 1999 the department had recovered $306,000; in FY2000 they recovered $708,000; in FY2001, through February, recovery had been almost $900,000. Mr. Colling credited the efforts of the employees involved in the recovery, and commended them.
Senator Jacobsen asked if the department had enough in-house procedures on check acceptance. He clarified, saying in some instances companies would ask for a driver's license number. Mr. Colling said training of the motor vehicle technicians included money handling. He said they also had special classes conducted by the Secret Service to train the department's revenue personnel. The training by the Secret Service included information about bad checks and bad money. Mr. Colling shared two recent incidents where, at the counter of the DMV in Las Vegas, counterfeit money had been passed. The persons passing the money were caught right at the counter. Bad checks were an ongoing problem. The department had started to deal with the bad checks situation by cross-referencing a person's vehicle registration to a check. The information for the vehicle registration was written on the check and added to the computer system. He said when a check bounced the vehicle registration would be tagged as not valid.
Mr. Kirkland added that Mr. Colling might be underselling the performance of himself and his unit. Mr. Kirkland said that two and a half years prior to the hearing the department had only collected $10,000 to $20,000 a year, but currently the collections were up to almost $1 million. Mr. Kirkland commended the department for doing so well in such a difficult job. He had been surprised that the same people bounced checks, repeatedly, with the previous system. He said the Governor had written an Executive Order and the Attorney General's office had given the department authority to put together an effective program in regard to collections and because of the program collections had increased. Mr. Kirkland felt the bad check issue would continue to be stemmed. He said future legislation should help to get the bad check costs down even further. Mr. Kirkland commented that the bad check problem was serious and needed to be corrected.
Mr. Marvel asked if cars of the persons who bounced checks could be impounded. Mr. Kirkland said technically, if an officer stopped a vehicle and saw that the registration had been tagged as invalid, the car could be impounded. He said that they could not hold the car while a lien was placed on it.
Mr. Marvel asked when the DMV would start to administer the gasoline tax. Mr. Colling answered January of 2002. Mr. Marvel asked if the administration of the gasoline tax would require more personnel and Mr. Colling said that the Administrative Services Division would not be handling the gasoline tax program directly, and therefore could not answer Mr. Marvel's question, but he would get the information to the committee. Mr. Marvel asked if there would be a change in the way the tax was collected. He said that several years previous, changes regarding special fuels had gained the state approximately $10 million and he wanted to know if the department had planned any changes in regard to the gasoline tax. Ginny Lewis, Deputy Director, Department of Motor Vehicles, said the Motor Carrier Budget had two decision units that addressed the gasoline tax. One decision unit requested the transfer of three positions from the Department of Taxation to the DMV and the other decision unit requested five additional positions to administer the gasoline tax program. Ms. Lewis said she was not able to answer the question regarding any changes, but would have Russ Benzler, Administrator, Compliance Enforcement Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, look into the issue.
Senator Neal said that he had received a charge for $6 for a Senatorial license plate. He said it was the first time he had received a charge for the license plate. He explained that he had written a check on his campaign account for the fee, and then had closed the account. He had called the DMV and talked to someone in the director's office and advised the person he spoke to that the account had been closed. He was told to send another check, which he did, but had failed to sign the check. He then had to have the check returned so he could sign it and then he sent it back. Due to all the problems, he received a charge for $35. Mr. Colling said that it was obvious that their check system was working well. Senator Neal asked when the DMV had started charging the legislators for their specialty plates. Ms. Lewis said she did not know why fees had just been initiated, or why it had not been done in the past, but would find out. Senator Neal commented that the legislators were required to register their cars in their own name, whether or not they had the Senatorial plates, so he was not sure why they would be receiving a charge. Mr. Parks interjected that he had paid the fee for three terms. Senator Neal reminded Mr. Parks that state Senators received their plates for four years, and Mr. Parks acknowledged that he did have to renew his plates every two years.
Senator O'Donnell asked if the DMV had an automated check cashing system where money would be automatically taken from an account, when the check was processed at the DMV. Mr. Kirkland said no, but that it was the department's goal to get to that position. He said they had been working with the constitutional officers, the comptroller, and the treasurer, attempting to get to that position. Mr. Colling said the automated check systems like Senator O'Donnell mentioned charged service fees on a per-check basis. He informed the committee that the DMV received over one million checks a year. He said bad checks, after collections, had been reduced to approximately 2,400. He said if they paid 50 cents a check, for the automated system, for one million checks, the fee would be around $750,000 a year. He said the automated system did not guarantee that the checks would be good. He said the department needed to do an evaluation before making such a big decision. He said they would continue to look at programs to see if they could use it with their computer program already in place.
Senator O'Donnell asked what was the average amount of the 2,400 bad checks. Mr. Colling answered that the average was around $200 to $300. Senator O'Donnell said that would make it about $720,000 in lost revenue and if they could work out a discounted rate with a company, since there were so many checks received, it might be cost effective to use an automated checking system. Mr. Colling agreed and said the department would continue to evaluate the issue. Mr. Kirkland added that the department had the same situation with credit cards and the state's ability to charge outside fees. He said the procedures and laws needed to be adjusted, so that when there was a cost to the department, it could be passed on.
PUBLIC SAFETY, DIRECTOR'S OFFICE – BUDGET PAGE PS-1
Senator Jacobsen asked for testimony on Budget Account 201-4706.
Carol English, Assistant Chief, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, introduced herself. She said the Director's Office budget had 13 positions in the base budget. She said the 13 positions had been authorized the previous session, with only a few minor adjustments in the FY2000. She said there were basically no enhancements of the budget except the cost allocation enhancements and the split enhancements. She said decision unit E-801 was the administrative cost allocation as well as an enhancement in the Administrative Services Division and Internal Affairs budgets. Ms. English said the enhancement just reflected the movement of revenue out of Highway Funds and General Funds, whichever the previous revenue source was, into the interagency administrative cost allocation general ledger, allowing the budgets to receive the revenue that was being charged to all the different divisions, as a result of the cost allocation.
Ms. English explained the E-915 decision unit was for the transfer of seven positions taken from the Director's Office and added to the DMV, when the department split. She said the budget that the committee had previously received reflected six positions were to be transferred, but the department had an amendment in the process to add an additional position, another management analyst.
Senator Jacobsen asked if many years ago, personnel had been cross-trained to handle different responsibilities, or did that happen in the registration division. Mr. Colling answered that it had been the registration division, and explained that part of the reorganization of the DMV included the cross-training of the registration and driver's license personnel. Mr. Colling explained that it was not a part of the budget currently being discussed.
PUBLIC SAFETY, ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES – BUDGET PAGE PS-7
Senator Jacobsen requested information regarding Budget Account 201-4714.
Mr. Colling said that an area of concern for the Administrative Services Division had been bad checks, previously discussed during the hearing. He said there were two areas of concern in regard to the bad checks category. One area was the department had not written off the bad debt. They had not gone back and conducted that accounting transaction, per a decision made in order to concentrate on the revenue end of the budget. With limited resources, they had directed the funds to the areas where they thought the revenue could do the best for the state. He added that a second area of concern was when the department received checks the actual distribution of revenue had been based on the amount of the checks received. If the check was later found to be a bad check, the department had already made a distribution of funds. He said that previously the DMV Fund had carried the debts. After a review by the department, they were instituting measures that would correct the problem by reducing subsequent distribution to the county and school districts. Mr. Colling said he had contacted all the counties, explained the situation, and told them what to expect in the future, and that adjustments would be made monthly, as necessary.
Mr. Colling said that in the handout, under the tab labeled "Credit Cards," (Exhibit C), there was a chart showing the total number of transactions conducted by credit card, the number of transactions conducted through the department alternative technology processes, and the amount of funds being paid to the credit card companies. He said charges to the department for credit card usage had been established through a statewide contract, and had been administered through the State Treasurer. Mr. Colling said the amount of credit cards usage had grown. He said the department, in order to address increasing costs, had requested additional funding through the IFC at the December 2000 hearing because they did not expect credit card usage to level out. He said that based upon figures for the last few months there might be a reduction in the growth of credit card usage. He explained that as the state expanded its acceptance of payments other than cash, there would be costs that affected the department and the state.
Mr. Parks asked what percent rate had been paid to the banks for processing credit cards. Mr. Colling said it had been a negotiated rate as part of the banking contract with the treasurer. He said he had been told that it had been provided through the banking contract because the state did not know how much volume would be initiated through the use of credit cards. He said they currently were looking at doing a separate bid, and he would get back to the committee with the exact rate, from the treasurer. Mr. Parks said that in some cases rates were based on a fixed fee per $100 of charges, and another means of payment was a negotiated percentage. He suggested taking the merchants' fees and divide them into the credit card revenue and it should give some kind of figure to determine what the rate had been.
Senator Neal asked if the credit card merchant's fee was based on the number of credit card transactions. Mr. Colling answered that his understanding of the fee was that it was based on the number of transactions and a percentage of the dollar volume. Senator Neal referred to a chart in the handout, (Exhibit C), under the tab labeled "Credit Cards" and pointed out February of 2000. He asked what the difference was between the number of alternative technology credit card transactions and the total credit card transactions. Mr. Colling said the numbers were added to show the impact that the alternative technology had on the total usage of credit cards. He said all of the electronic transactions required the use of a credit card. The total number of credit card usage included persons that walked up to the counter, and used the facilities in person. Senator Neal asked if he subtracted the alternative technology from the total, would he get the walk-in amount. Mr. Colling said yes. Senator Neal then referred to July 2000, and asked if the 16,070 credit card transactions had incurred handling fees of $83,811, for the state, and Mr. Colling answered yes. Mr. Kirkland said the high cost of credit card fees was why he had said the department needed to get a solution to fix the problem. Currently they had been spending the taxpayer's money to let other taxpayers use a credit card for free.
Mr. Parks asked, in reference to Mr. Colling's earlier reference to credit card usage leveling off, what assumptions the department had made as to how that might come out, and how the leveling off would affect the budget. Mr. Kirkland said they currently could not make an assumption. He said the department was growing in terms of the amount of customers and in the way they were doing business. They had legislation asking for kiosks and contract offices throughout the state. He said if other legislation authorized things like the automated check system and an automated debit process, etc., that would impact credit card usage, so an assumption could not be made for a few years. Mr. Kirkland added that Nevada was ahead of other states in credit card usage, even though the other states had started using credit cards two or three years prior to Nevada. He said Nevada was at a 4 to 5 percent usage level.
Mr. Parks reviewed the calculations for January of 2001, (Exhibit C), and said the transaction cost was a little over 2.1 percent.
Mr. Colling said the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety was at the forefront of the state's use of credit cards. Other agencies had come to them to ask advice on how to set up a credit card usage system. He said that credit card companies had approached the DMV, other than Visa and MasterCard, wanting "a piece of the action." Mr. Colling felt the issue of adding additional credit card companies needed to be addressed as well.
Mr. Beers referred to the bad check section of the handout, (Exhibit C), and said the way bad check debts were covered in private businesses was to develop a history that, for example, .42 percent of the revenue came in from bad checks, so every month, the company would take .42 percent of the revenue and record it as a bad debt expense and set up an allowance for doubtful accounts on the balance sheet, so that when a company received a bad check, they would have offset the allowance. Mr. Beers was not sure if state law would allow doing something like that, but said it would alleviate some of the problems of paying the local governments and school districts the proceeds of the privilege taxes. Mr. Kirkland agreed with Mr. Beers and said a decision regarding the issue had to be made during the current month because they were fronting the money from bad checks out of the Highway Fund. He said they would be doing exactly what Mr. Beers had described.
Senator Jacobsen asked why the DMV was recruiting personnel in Mississippi, Alabama, and Texas. Mr. Colling answered that the issue was covered under decision unit E-276. He said the DMV had a difficult time recruiting personnel in states surrounding Nevada, due to the offered salary and benefits package, especially in California, where it was impossible to compete. Mr. Colling shared that he had been born in North Dakota and he said he knew that if someone from Las Vegas came to North Dakota in January to recruit someone to work in Nevada, they would look favorably at the offer. He said that if someone from Nevada went to Mississippi or Alabama, in August, and shared pictures of Elko County, the same situation would occur. Mr. Colling said Nevada's wage and benefit packages also compared favorably to those states. The request was for approval to recruit and test, on-site, to enable the department to get a pool of candidates, already trained in Peace Officer's Standards Training (POST).
Senator Jacobsen asked if it was proper to use Highway Funds for recruitment of Parole and Probation personnel. Mr. Colling answered that the recruitment would be cost allocated throughout the department, depending on where the funds were going.
Senator Jacobsen asked for information regarding the imaging system for accounts payable. Mr. Colling responded that the E-300 was for replacement and upgrade of the document imaging software. He said it needed to be upgraded for several reasons. The first reason was the old program had been written in a 16-bit program, and the new software would be written in a 32-bit environment. He explained that the accounts payable section had seven people working full time, who had to deal with over 40 budgets. He said there had been over $200 million, in various amounts, that flowed through accounts payable, in order to pay bills. He said there were about six or seven file cabinets for the entire section. Mr. Colling shared that document imaging had been used extensively in the accounts payable area. He said it had worked well, but the system needed to be kept current. He said they were running out of room, and also wanted to expand the imaging system to the personnel section of the department. Mr. Colling said the goal was to be as close to a paperless system as possible. Senator Jacobsen asked if it would help with cost allocation. Mr. Colling said that his belief was that it would.
Mr. Parks asked for a comparison of benefits using the imaging system versus microfilm. Mr. Colling replied that the benefit of using an imaging system was that a person sitting at a computer, with document imaging, would be able to pull up all the documents associated with a particular transaction and view them right at their desk, on their computer. Information was stored, cross-referenced, and you actually saw an image of the document. Microfilm would mean each person would have to have separate equipment at their desk in order to view the microfilm, plus a duplicate of the microfilm, or they would have to have a central location to go view the microfilm in order to view the information needed. Mr. Colling said it was his belief that although the microfilm, according to the archives division, had a longer storage life than document imaging, a long length of storage time was not necessary for the department. They only needed to store documents for three years. Mr. Parks said his concern was that an accounts payable document would not need to be retrieved that often. Mr. Colling disagreed with Mr. Parks and explained that the department needed to review documents frequently. He said he personally had not accessed the files, but at least three or four times a week he asked for information in order to verify payment, to find out what had been tied to what, and the division had to review the documents frequently to get the information needed.
Mr. Beers added that an imaging system made auditors happier, as information could be viewed more quickly, making for a less expensive audit. Money was saved on rents and physical space, due to less need of office space to store documents. Mr. Beers shared that he personally paid $50 a month to rent space for storage of documents for his business, because he did not have an imaging system. He said for a larger organization the imaging system was a significant benefit. Mr. Beers added that with the price of the imaging system the DMV was using, he wondered if they could subcontract to other state agencies, and provide them with document imaging services.
Senator Jacobsen reminded the DMV that performance indicators were necessary for the committee to review, to enable them to keep in touch with what the department was doing and to serve as guidelines for decision-making.
Senator Jacobsen asked for information regarding E-888. He commented that in taking a tour of the Carson City warehouse, it had been evident that improvements were needed. Mr. Colling said under decision unit E-888 a number of expenses were listed that normally would be considered one-shot appropriations. He said they would like to continue with the expenses in the budget. He said one item was to physically remodel the Carson City warehouse. He said the warehouse was "chopped up" through the use of cages, and was full. He said the department felt that they could double the square footage if most of the cages were dismantled. Mr. Colling explained that would be less expensive than building a new warehouse. The warehouse had not been used for storage; rather it had been used for transition items, with the exception of the storage of some records that were required by law to be kept.
Mr. Colling said the second item under E-888 was the repair of counters in the Winnemucca office. The counters were substandard, causing people to be hurt and to catch their clothing. The counters had been poorly built and were falling apart. He said the facilities represented the state to the public and to the employees, and the offices needed to be in good order.
Senator Jacobsen asked for a chart that would show what was where, with the split of the department. Mr. Colling said he would provide a list of the facilities around the state and identify what would be used by the DMV and what Public Safety would use. Senator Jacobsen said he thought that was advisable because committee members did not seem to have time to get around and view the facilities as often as they should. He thought that was a failure of the legislature; that they had to make decisions sight unseen. He felt that the 120-day session did not help with that matter.
Mrs. Chowning verified that the warehouse was full from the floor to the ceiling. She asked that the staff be provided enough detail to determine what types of remodeling ideas had been discussed. She said $25,000 did not seem like a lot of money for the purpose of remodeling. She also asked for detail as to how the facilities would be split between the DMV and Public Safety.
PUBLIC SAFETY, INTERNAL AFFAIRS – BUDGET PAGE PS-23
Senator Jacobsen asked for information regarding Budget Account 201-4707.
Mr. Kirkland introduced Brian Sanchez, Commander, Internal Affairs, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. Mr. Kirkland said the budget was a stand-alone budget for the first time.
Senator Jacobsen welcomed Sergeant Sanchez. Sergeant Sanchez said he was a Highway Patrol Sergeant, assigned as the Internal Affairs Commander. He said the division was a small unit, consisting of three people. Sergeant Sanchez explained that the unit was under the supervision of the deputy director and the director of the DMV and Public Safety. He explained their job was to prepare investigations based on allegations of misconduct by employees or citizens, which could result in disciplinary action. Investigations could include matters involving the violation of laws, policies, and rules and regulations. He said the unit was an independent unit, working for the Director's Office. He said he, and one other employee, were from the Nevada Highway Patrol, and the third person was from Parole and Probation, and they had been reassigned to Internal Affairs. In FY2000 the division completed 52 administrative investigations. He said they were currently changing the way the division worked as they had identified areas where they needed to enhance their ability to receive, identify, and resolve complaints, throughout the department. Changes would increase their ability to investigate, which would result in more in-depth investigations. Sergeant Sanchez said they were transferring low-level investigations to front-line supervisors, for resolution. If a supervisor was not able to resolve the problem, they would have the authority to investigate the issue. This would require training, and, in fact, training had already been initiated, and five classes had already been completed. It was expected that the changes would enable the division to receive and review more complaints. He said they currently did not have an accurate count of complaints against the Nevada Highway Patrol, the Nevada Division of Investigations, the Department of Parole and Probation, etc. He said, previously supervisors did not have to report complaints to Internal Affairs. Sergeant Sanchez said a future goal of Internal Affairs was to be able to identify problems in the areas of risk management, job performance, misconduct, and discipline. He said after the five training sessions had been completed, they specifically worked on the Highway Patrol, because that department received the highest amount of complaints. With the training, they had increased the identification of complaints from nine complaints as of March 2000, to 54 complaints currently. He said that did not mean more people had complained, rather the department was identifying problems due to the additional training. The training had been provided to employees at the supervisory-level positions, administrators, and up to and including the chief, and was focused on how to identify and assess, as well as take care of problems. Sergeant Sanchez said the unit planned to go from division to division to provide the training, in order to increase awareness.
Sergeant Sanchez said the budget had been prepared under the Governor's instruction and had stayed within the existing costs. He explained that some enhancements of the budget included more in-state travel, and the plan had been to restructure the budget so that the unit would not be requesting more funds. He said they were given $1,500 for in-state travel under the first budget established, and they needed to increase the amount due to needs for supervision within the division, and also to travel the state to perform investigations. He said they were also asking for out-of-state travel enhancement so that investigations could be continued, as a lot of citizens who made complaints lived outside of Nevada. He said another request had been for the purpose of upgrading their computers so that they would be able to produce quality documentation, in a timely manner.
Sergeant Sanchez told the committee that another area Internal Affairs was responsible for was to track individual investigations. Although not all of the 54 complaints they had received required a formal administrative investigation, the division still needed to identify the complaints and track them. Even if the complaints had been resolved, the division needed to track them so that they could be audited and to determine if the complaints were solved correctly. He said they wanted to be able to provide statistical data to the director on a monthly basis. Sergeant Sanchez said he met with the director once a week to brief him on the unit's current status and caseload. He said at the end of the year they wanted to provide a report on the activities done throughout the year.
Sergeant Sanchez said the highlight of the program was the restructuring of the methods of handling complaints. He said that Internal Affairs had coordinated the training with the assistance of the Nevada Division of Investigations. He reiterated that the training taught every chief and supervisor how to deal with possible disciplinary issues and misconduct issues reported by private citizens or employees. The emphasis had been on supervisor responsibility, and accountability, and helped the supervisors, administrators, and frontline officers to be able to recognize the importance of understanding the needs of the public, peers, and fellow employees. It had been hoped that the training would enhance a supervisor's understanding of his or her own duty as a state employee.
Sergeant Sanchez explained that the unit had taught the supervisors and administrators that they were accountable for the actions of their employees, and directly responsible for the leadership, guidance, training and development of individual employees, whether they were getting complaints or not. The training would reinforce the rules to every person from the chief to the frontline supervisor. This would show employees that their supervisor was involved in their career and knowing that would hopefully aid the employee. One subject the training included was a review in ethics. Although most of the people in the DMV and Public Safety had been trained in ethics previously, there was new information on ethics, and the supervisors and administrators needed to be reinforced in regard to the issue. Sergeant Sanchez said a second subject covered in the training was the difference between generations and how a person would react because of their generation. Recognizing the differences with the generations was important when dealing with the generational complaints. A third subject covered in training was the enhancement of communication between supervisors, administrators, the public, and employees. Sergeant Sanchez was hopeful that, with the training, complaints would be reduced.
Sergeant Sanchez said the upgrade of the computer system would assist in the role of risk management. In the last year, Internal Affairs tracked 52 cases within their office, 37 divisional issues, and 37 cases as a result of complaints. With the upgrade, they would be able to identify, with a true count, how many complaints an individual employee received within a month, or six months. This would help Internal Affairs determine if the employee needed further training, and/or identify if a supervisor was aware of the issues involved.
In summary, Sergeant Sanchez said the unit was working hard to conduct thorough investigations, and they were undertaking the retraining of Nevada employees working under the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He said the unit's goal was to enhance investigations, make the investigations better, and timelier. The goal had been to reach 85 percent of the investigations within the time frames identified by his office.
Mr. Beers asked how the split of Public Safety and the DMV would affect Internal Affairs, and if the division had responsibility to the DMV side of the department. Sergeant Sanchez answered that although he had some small involvement with the DMV, he mainly worked for the Public Safety side, and when the split was accomplished, he would be working under Public Safety. Mr. Beers said there were still some cost allocations in the budget under the DMV. Mr. Beers commented that he thought that was because the budget had been created before the agency had requested the split, and the committee would have to decide how to handle that situation. Ms. English responded that the cost allocations had been done, reflecting the split, and the information was provided to staff by e-mail a few days ago, and all Internal Affairs costs would be removed from the DMV budgets.
Senator Neal asked if there was an overlap of what was done by the Division of Investigations and by the training division. He wondered if some of the functions could be merged, and if Sergeant Sanchez' position could be placed under the Department of Investigations. Mr. Kirkland answered that that might eventually happen. He said past experience had shown that each department needed different kinds of expertise. Mr. Kirkland gave an example of several investigations going on in Clark County where the expertise needed rested with the Division of Investigations. He said currently there had been an internal investigation in the DMV and Public Works, and stated that he could not explain further without exposing information he could not release. He said the investigation required people with experience in fraud crimes, knowledge of how systems work, and familiarity with financial issues. Mr. Kirkland said that as things developed, he could very likely make the recommendation that Senator Neal suggested of combining the two divisions.
Senator Neal said that there had been issues raised regarding profiling, statewide and nationally. He said Highway Patrolmen were usually involved as they were the ones out on the roads stopping people and they were the ones who received the complaints. Senator Neal asked how profiling complaints were handled. Mr. Kirkland said there were two levels of handling the complaints. The first level was with the immediate supervisor. He said what the agency wanted was to settle a situation at the lowest possible level, so that the supervisor would bear some of the responsibility for the outcome. He said that Internal Affairs audited complaints, so that they could be tracked, and complaints could not be handled without Internal Affairs being notified. The complaints were numbered, for tracking purposes, and Internal Affairs also contacted the complaining party, if necessary. If a case was complex, then it would be referred to Internal Affairs to be handled. He said that way more money and expertise could be put into resolving the complaint. Mr. Kirkland said that Internal Affairs would then make a presentation to him and the deputy director, as well as other commanders, and they in turn would go over the reporting in great detail to create a check and balance. He said that from a policy procedure training standpoint, there was not an issue with the Highway Patrol as far as profiling. He said there might be an issue with understanding what the difference was between profiling and probable cause. Mr. Kirkland said the department had been in the process of conducting training programs to make sure people understood the difference.
Senator Neal shared the facts of a call he received from a preacher the previous year. He said the preacher went to Las Vegas for a convention. The preacher was driving a BMW, and was stopped on his way to Las Vegas, after crossing the Nevada state line, and received a ticket. The preacher decided not to drive his car back, so he let someone else drive his car, and that person was stopped and ticketed as well, between Las Vegas and the state line. The preacher sent a copy of both tickets to Senator Neal, explaining that neither driver was speeding, but was just pulled over and stopped. Senator Neal said he could understand that when there had been no probable cause, a ticket would need to be given, to justify the stop, even if it was for a taillight being out. He said he did not remember if he had called Mr. Kirkland previously regarding this matter, and Mr. Kirkland said that the Senator had told him that he was going to call about the issue, but had not. Mr. Kirkland asked Senator Neal to send the information to him and the department would look into the situation very carefully. Mr. Kirkland said the department was as concerned as everyone else over the issue of profiling. He reminded the committee that the department was not perfect, and mistakes were made, but that was what Sergeant Sanchez was there for, and he did his job well. Mr. Kirkland said the majority of the Highway Patrolmen, as well as their other employees, were excellent employees. Senator Neal asked if it was appropriate to send complaints received from constituents to Mr. Kirkland and Mr. Kirkland said yes.
Mr. Parks complimented Sergeant Sanchez for his presentation. He asked if information learned during investigations was used to make recommendations for policy change, as well as additional training, when it was recognized that a violation might be caused because of the need for the change or the training. Sergeant Sanchez said yes, they did identify the type of issues Mr. Parks mentioned, through their finding section. He said that within the report of the investigation, a finding was developed, and it explained why a complaint occurred or did not occur. They identified whether they had a performance issue, a training issue, a disciplinary issue, or a violation of policy, so that the problem could be addressed. Mr. Parks asked if the answer to his question was that there was a feedback network that highlighted additional needs a department might have, and Sergeant Sanchez said yes.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FORFEITURES – LAW ENFORCEMENT – BUDGET PAGE PS-95
Senator Jacobsen asked for information regarding Budget Account 101-4703.
Mr. Kirkland introduced David Hosmer, Acting Chief, Nevada Division of Investigations.
Mr. Hosmer said the Nevada Division of Investigation's (NDI) mission statement was to interdict narcotics and dangerous drugs, provide criminal and investigative services, investigate alleged organized criminal activity, and maintain a system for locating missing persons and unidentified dead. The mission was accomplished by providing professional criminal investigations, statewide, collecting and disseminating criminal information, educating the public, and cooperating with all law enforcement entities.
Mr. Hosmer said that Budget Account 101-4703 was the DMV and Public Safety account where forfeited monies from civil actions were accounted for, whether originated through state action or federal action. Mr. Hosmer explained that since FY1998 the NDI had seen a reduction in amounts received into the forfeiture account. One reason for the reduction was because suspects had become more educated to the system. Suspects had learned to hide assets, and had not been living lavish lifestyles; for example, they had not been purchasing expensive cars. Suspects had also been moving cash out of the country faster and therefore, the cash could not be seized. Revenue seized for each year since FY1998 had steadily declined. Mr. Hosmer said that in FY1998 the NDI saw $751,202; in FY1999 $391,000; in FY2000 $168,000, and to date for FY2001 only $76,905. He said the expenditures from the account, since FY1998, had been primarily for grant match purposes. Mr. Hosmer explained that for the current biennium Internal Affairs had requested grant match funds from General Fund monies, keeping within the FY2001 times two target. He said the NDI had also requested the authority to transfer forfeiture funds to Budget Account 3743 to purchase 20 replacement vehicles for the NDI fleet.
Senator Neal said that it appeared the division had a lot of money on hand and referred to the interest listed in the budget, which was $66,000. Ms. English responded that the budget accounted for forfeitures that came from the NDI and Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP). She said there was a balance in the account, with a carryforward of around $1 million. The money had been compartmentalized within the budget, and the NDI was talking about the portion available to them. She said that NHP also spent out of the budget, but that was done through work program revisions that were brought to the Interim Finance Committee. Ms. English explained the spending that was projected for the next biennium was expected to be a flat-line amount.
Senator Neal asked for clarification of the amount of money carried over. Ms. English said it was $1.1 million. Senator Neal asked if they expected to end the FY2001 with $1.8 million and Ms. English said yes, but in addition to the NDI budget that had to go through the formal legislative process, they were also planning a work program coming in that would be around $300,000 or $400,000 from the NHP. Those programs would include the canine corps, and the training of officers in narcotics enforcement issues. Senator Neal said the Treasurer's Office indicated that the NDI actually made $66,000 in interest on the $1.1 million. Ms. English agreed that was the amount of interest that was received for FY2000, and added that it was projected forward at a flat rate.
Mr. Kirkland added that the department had to stop doing what they had previously done, in spending $350,000 a year for grant matches. He explained that since the money for forfeitures had decreased they would not be able to meet the requirement for the next two years. Mr. Kirkland said the money looked bigger than it really was.
Mr. Beers asked if the vehicles to be purchased would be bought through the State Motor Pool, or independently. Mr. Hosmer replied that during the current year the NDI had identified 41 of their fleet that needed replacement. The replacement, if approved, would be done through various means; 21 would be through a Motor Pool lease program, 20 would be coming out of Budget Account 101-4703, and once the money had been transferred to Budget Account 101-3743, would be purchased outright. The cars would be transitioned through the Motor Pool. Mr. Beers asked if they were bought with all the gear included, for example, radios. Mr. Hosmer said that under Budget Account 101-3743 they had a program that provided some of the emergency equipment including lights, sirens, etc. He said the NDI would remove the radios from the old vehicles and install them in the new vehicles.
Mr. Beers mentioned a bill that was going through the Senate and said it would make it illegal to take a person's property before he was found guilty of a crime. Mr. Beers asked if the law would have an impact on the revenue of the account. Mr. Hosmer said yes. In regards to Mr. Beers' question, Mr. Hosmer said the budget had been prepared with the assumption that the bill did not exist.
PUBLIC SAFETY, NARCOTICS CONTROL – BUDGET PAGE PS-107
Senator Jacobsen asked for information on Budget Account 101-3744.
Mr. Hosmer gave a brief explanation of the Narcotics Control Division. He said under the Nevada Revised Statute (NRS) 481.240 the division was charged with investigating criminal controlled substance violations of the NRS Chapter 453. He said in 1986 the division recognized the need for multi-jurisdictional narcotics task forces to utilize the resources of the state and local law enforcement, in order to combat the narcotics problem. He added that in 1998 an independent audit conducted by the Great Basin Policy Research Institute came to the conclusion that Nevada's multi-jurisdictional narcotics task forces were clearly a successful and effective element of law enforcement.
Mr. Hosmer said that the NDI only had 17 criminal investigators and 6 supervisors assigned throughout the state for narcotics enforcement. He said complete cooperation and coordination of efforts with county and local law enforcement agencies in rural Nevada was critical. He said Budget Account 101-3744 funded 18 full-time employees. Of those 18 employees 12 were sworn officers and 6 were civilian support. He said the account provided the division with the resources necessary to continue to address drug problems in areas covered by six of the multi-jurisdictional task forces. Mr. Hosmer explained that without the funding requested, the division would not be able to support the task force operations in 11 of Nevada's counties, including Douglas County, Storey County, Washoe County, Pershing County, Humboldt County, White Pine County, Lincoln County, Churchill County, Mineral County, Lyon County, and Carson City. He said the account had been primarily funded with the Edward Byrne Memorial federal narcotics grant, along with matching funds. He said there had also been an annual cash grant from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, for the eradication of illegal marijuana production. Mr. Hosmer explained that in addition to the Governor's instructions for keeping the budget at FY2001 times two, the division was advised, by the Office of Criminal Justice Assistance, to hold federal grant requests at the FY2001 funding level because the Office of Criminal Justice Assistance anticipated a decrease in the total amount of federal funds available for Nevada.
Mr. Hosmer shared a few things that the program did for Nevada. He said that illegal methamphetamine production in Nevada had grown tremendously. In September of 1999 the El Paso Intelligence Center ranked Nevada fifth in the nation for clandestine laboratory seizures. He said that law enforcement agencies in Washoe County and Clark County accounted for the majority of the seizures. As those agencies applied enforcement pressure on the problem, there had been increased activity in rural areas. Mr. Hosmer stated the Ely-based task force seized six methamphetamine labs in the year 2000. In order to address the issue, the division, along with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, had provided nine NDI supervisors, criminal investigators, or task force officers, who were Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) trained, to assist in the investigation, seizure, and dismantling of the clandestine laboratories. Of the nine positions, four were paid salaries funded by Budget Account 101-3744. Mr. Hosmer continued and explained the division had also been scheduled to send ten additional supervisors, criminal investigators, or task force officers in June of 2001 to assist with the investigations where needed. During the first half of FY2001 the Carson City based task force, in cooperation with numerous law enforcement agencies from two different states, dismantled a large methamphetamine manufacturing and distribution organization that had been operating in western Nevada and Montana. The group that was "taken down" had been responsible for producing methamphetamine with a purity level rarely seen, according to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's laboratory specialists.
Mr. Hosmer said the base budget for Budget Account 101-3744 had basically the same items and categories as for FY2000. Maintenance for the account consisted of pay raises due to inflation. Giving an overview of the budget, Mr. Hosmer said decision unit E-275 was the request for the replacement of six vehicles over the current biennium, four in FY2002 and two in FY2003, through the Motor Pool lease program; decision unit E-276 requested funds for the removal and reinstallation of police radios; decision unit E-350 requested that grant match funding come from the General Fund; decision unit E-351 requested the utilization of General Fund dollars to cover increases and cost allocations, as the Office of Criminal Justice Assistance had requested that the NDI hold federal grant funding requests at the FY2001 funding levels; decision units E-800, E-801, and E-982 referred to cost allocations.
Senator O'Donnell asked if it was an appropriate time to review the Nevada Highway Patrol radio system, and Mr. Kirkland said that the subject would be covered under another budget.
PUBLIC SAFETY, CAPITOL POLICE – BUDGET PAGE –PS-123
Senator Jacobsen asked for testimony on Budget Account 710-4727.
While waiting for testimony on Budget Account 710-4727, Mr. Kirkland introduced Dave Prather, Accounting Technician II, Accounts Payable, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety, and Kathy Hobdy, Accounting Technician II, Accounts Payable, Administrative Services Division, Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He said they were the two employees who took the department's collections and bad debts recovery program from $10,000, or $15,000, to millions. He wanted to commend them for their hard work. Senator Jacobsen stated that it was nice having them at the hearing.
Ken Johnson, Chief, Nevada Capitol Police, introduced himself. He then gave a brief summary of the function of the division. He said Nevada Capitol Police provided for the safety of people on state property, as well as the state property itself, in various locations in the state. He explained that the division was small, with 26 sworn officers and one management assistant. Their main funding source had been through the Department of Administration, Buildings and Grounds Division, with the remainder coming from the Nevada State Supreme Court for two positions for protection of the court facilities in Las Vegas.
Mr. Johnson said one of the things the division had tried to do to improve operations was to implement a program that tracked public contacts and phone calls, coming through the fixed locations occupied by officers. Through the implementation of the program, the department hoped to determine the needs and locations where it would be necessary to have the presence of a capitol policeman. He said they also had initiated a survey system, which provided cards for public comment. The program was initiated in January and for the months of January and February they had 11,980 public contacts and 2,236 phone calls from the public asking for assistance. The figures indicated that, on a yearly basis, there would be approximately 72,000 contacts with the public coming into state facilities. The Nevada Capitol Police were one of the first contacts the public had with the state. In reviewing the survey cards that had been returned, all were marked in the excellent or good categories, and none had negative comments. If the survey cards were included with the public contacts, Mr. Johnson said they would show that the Nevada Capitol Police were doing a good job and serving the public well. He thought they had done a good job directing people in the proper direction, getting them information needed, as well as keeping the peace.
Mr. Johnson said the budget had been prepared with the same instructions as the other divisions of the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He said that the division requested for the FY2002 the amount of $1,684,542 and for FY2003, $1,710,906. The figures included the Governor's recommended cost-of-living increase, the additional grade step nine, administrative cost allocations, and the three enhancements.
Senator Neal asked if the various agencies under the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety were interchangeable, within the department. Mr. Kirkland answered that it was an issue that the department was reviewing, regarding the concept of a public safety department. Mr. Kirkland said the answer to Senator Neal's question was no, they were not interchangeable at the current time, but it would be a goal for the future. He wanted to make the department a true public safety department and assuming the qualifications would be similar for each division, interchangeability would be possible.
Senator Jacobsen asked about the operation of the Governor's Mansion. Mr. Johnson answered that the Capitol Police did not currently handle the Governor's Mansion.
Mr. Parks asked for a comment regarding the non-holiday overtime expenses that went over budget during FY1999-2000. Mr. Johnson said the best way to address the overtime would be to review the current year's facts. The current fiscal year was typical, in that they had experienced four vacancies. The division currently had two vacancies. He said that according to reporting dated February 16, 2001, paid overtime to date for FY2001 was $10,531. Mr. Johnson said the division also had 1,020 hours of comp time on the books. The overtime was incurred due to coverage of various extra activities, position vacancies, sick time and training. He said that the previous week they had conducted three ASP baton training classes in Las Vegas for nine officers. During the training approximately 36 hours of comp time was incurred, due to efforts to get officers from different shifts all into the same training.
Senator Jacobsen asked if Mr. Johnson had any closing remarks and Mr. Johnson said he would like to thank the committee for their time.
Mr. Parks added that follow up was needed from the department regarding cost allocation review that had been submitted; the split between the Highway Fund and other revenue sources; the possible maximizing of the Bryne grant, as well as maximizing matching funds for grants and where they might be coming from, whether the forfeitures, the federal fund, or the Highway Fund.
DEPARTMENT OF PRISONS, STEWART CONSERVATION CAMP – BUDGET PAGE PRISONS-100
Senator Jacobsen asked for testimony on Budget Account 101-3722.
Jackie Crawford, Director, Department of Prisons, introduced herself, as well as Janet Johnson, Assistant Director, Support Services, Department of Prisons, and Darrel Rexwinkel, CPA, Chief of Fiscal Services, Department of Prisons.
Darrel Rexwinkel said the Stewart Conservation Camp was located in Carson City. The camp had an average population of 232 in FY2000, and the projection showed an increase to 240 in the next biennium. The cost per day was $13.47 in FY2000, and would go to $14.45 in FY2002 and $15.09 in FY2003. Reasons for the increase included the additional grade step 9, the 4 percent increase for inflation purposes to salaries, etc. They had 15 positions in the base budget, which would remain the same in FY2002 and FY2003. The only enhancement for decision unit E-710 was for a commercial can opener, a portable radio, a food slicer, and a fax machine, totaling $5,720.
Senator Jacobsen said that most of the committee members had visited the camp at one time or another. He said it was one of Nevada's better camps.
Mrs. de Braga asked what caused the big turnover in the year 2000. Mr. Rexwinkel said he was not sure what caused it, and that it had been around a 40 percent turnover, but had been projected at 8 percent. He said sometimes with such a small number of employees in a camp, a promotional opportunity might cause a big turnover or employees might leave and go to another law enforcement agency. He said in some camps there had been very little turnover. Mrs. de Braga asked if there was any reason to believe that the trend would continue, and Mr. Rexwinkel answered no, he did not think so. He added that they did experience a very high turnover, at 15 – 20 percent in some areas, due to salaries and other opportunities.
Mr. Parks asked if turnovers were tracked by transfer to other divisions versus loss to outside employment. Mr. Rexwinkel said that their personnel group had tracked turnovers very closely, and could provide whatever statistics the committee might need. Senator Jacobsen said that because the Stewart facility was known as being one of the better camps, employees were sometimes stolen away. He said the person in charge of the forestry crew at the Silver Springs Women's Camp came from Stewart Conservation Camp and added that the state utilizes its best, wherever the need might be.
Mrs. Chowning said she had toured the camp in the past. She said she would like the department to work with some of the legislative staff in regard to some of the requested equipment. She pointed out that the fax machine that had been requested was $620 and she felt it was expensive.
Mr. Beers said he had also toured the facility. He asked if the fax machine was for staff use. Mr. Rexwinkel said yes. Mr. Beers asked if the facility had e-mail.
Ms. Crawford said that the department had just started implementing the e-mail system the past year. She said the central office had it and so did the wardens, but the system was new for the department. Mr. Beers informed Ms. Crawford that with an e-mail system, fax systems could put the fax into e-mail as an attachment. That way a person could be selective in what they printed, thus using less paper. He said if the facility did not have access to e-mail, then that would not be a choice for the department. Ms. Crawford said she would take that into consideration as the department "explored the world of automation."
Senator Jacobsen reiterated that the Stewart Conservation Camp was one of the better camps in Nevada. He said they did almost all the work in northern Nevada, including Lake Tahoe, Incline Village, Stateline, and took care of the 4-H camp. He said he had spent approximately 5,000 hours, as a volunteer, working with inmates. He said Stewart could not survive without the camp. He added years ago they used the men's camp out of Fernley and now they also used the women's camp at Silver Springs. He said the camp had been used as a model a few years back, when there had been a severe fire season. During that time there were nine camps located at Fuji Park, including a couple of women crews who served as cooks, and there had been no problems. Senator Jacobsen said he stayed at the camp in Fuji Park, along with the inmates.
Mr. Parks asked if the camp had any personal computers. Mr. Rexwinkel answered yes, and in the last few years more had been acquired. He agreed with Ms. Crawford that the department had progressively become "more automated" with e-mail and had access to more modern conveniences.
DEPARTMENT OF PRISONS, INDIAN SPRINGS CONSERVATION CAMP – BUDGET PAGE PRISONS-111
Senator Jacobsen asked to hear information regarding Budget Account 101-3725.
Mr. Rexwinkel said that Indian Springs Conservation Camp was located in southern Nevada, by the Southern Desert Correctional Center. In discussing the budget, Mr. Rexwinkel said there were only a couple of decision units, and they involved moving the boot camp from Indian Springs Conservation Camp to the Southern Desert Correctional Center. He said the current number of positions was 23, but with the movement of the boot camp, the position level would go down to 15, which was consistent with the other camps of the same size. The cost per day for FY2000 was $19.31, and went down to $14.34 in FY2002 and to $14.81 in FY2003. He said this was consistent with the Stewart Conservation Camp.
Mr. Rexwinkel added that with the move of the boot camp, they would be deleting seven correctional officers in decision unit E-277, and then E-903 involved the transfer of the boot camp lieutenant and the operating costs to the Southern Desert Correctional Center.
Senator Jacobsen said there had been some concern regarding the boot camp trailers. He asked for a general statement regarding the move of the boot camp. Ms. Crawford said that in keeping with the Governor's recommendation of making a flat-lined budget, the department looked at every possible way to fold some of the vacant positions, currently an average of 22 at Indian Springs Conservation Camp, in an attempt to save money. She said they had looked at closing down the boot camp and moving it to the Southern Desert Correctional Center. The opening of the High Desert State Prison provided an opportunity to begin to program the Southern Desert Correctional Center. She said Southern Desert Correctional Center would be in transition for a period of time, while they began to adjust to the different types of offenders. She said when inmates were classified or reclassified into the High Desert State Prison there would be some turnover and changes going on. This process would last approximately six months and then begin to stabilize. She said it was the department's belief that the Southern Desert Correctional Center had a more programmatic approach, and they felt they could delete the boot camp positions and fold the boot camp into the Southern Desert Correctional Center.
Mr. Parks asked if the boot camp program had already been moved into the High Desert State Prison. Ms. Crawford answered that there had been a temporary transfer until some things were completed at the Southern Desert Correctional Center. She said for six months the department would be in some transition, but subsequently the department would be able to stabilize its programs. Mr. Parks asked if staff had been provided with a plan showing how the changes went together. Ms. Crawford said the department was in the process of preparing a plan. She added, through the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), a team would be sent to work with all of the Department of Prisons' staff in regard to making preparations for a transition. Ms. Crawford said she felt very fortunate to have the NIC team's participation. She said she had been pleased to be chosen to be part of a pilot program that would change the culture of an institution. She explained that the program would require intensive planning as the process evolved.
Mr. Beers asked for clarification of Ms. Crawford's response as to whether or not the transfer of the boot camp had taken place. Ms. Crawford answered that the transfer had taken place at the High Desert State Prison, on an interim basis. Mr. Beers asked if the young men who had not been sentenced to prison were now behind bars instead of being housed in the boot camp trailers. Ms. Crawford said the young men were housed in a unit that was outside of the fence. She explained that High Desert State Prison had two components, one area had an electric fence, and one area was in the planning stage and would be adjacent to an industry space, after the design was completed. The youth were separated from the major population. Mr. Beers asked if a fence separated them and Ms. Crawford said yes. Mr. Beers said he had gone to the opening of the prison and remembered the layout. He asked where exactly the boot camp was located. Ms. Crawford said it was difficult to describe, because when inside the fence, where the units were, there were four levels. At the fourth unit, there was a separation with a fence that divided it off, and that was where the youth were staying. Mr. Beers asked what prompted the move. Ms. Crawford answered that the move was to enable repairs to the unit they had been housed in prior to the move. Mr. Beers asked what would happen after the unit had been repaired, and Ms. Crawford answered that the youth would be transferred back. Mr. Beers clarified that the move was temporary, for six months, until repairs were completed. Ms. Crawford said that the move was temporary, while the department made some arrangements and adjustments to the population, because the population was in transition. She said they were moving some of the more high-risk inmates to the High Desert State Prison, and they had the mental health unit, as well as the youth offender unit, and then the boot camp, which all needed consideration in a move. What they were doing was to repair some of the Southern Desert Correctional Center in preparation of bringing that population back in. Mr. Beers added that they would be fixing the trailers and Ms. Crawford agreed. Mr. Beers said that would have been a good activity for the youth that lived in the trailers. Ms. Crawford said it would have been a good activity, but sometimes they had to be removed to bring maintenance people in. She added that she would welcome the committee members to come out any time to look at the set up. She said they were having a good success ratio with the youth and also with working with the staff and the transition to the Southern Desert Correctional Center.
Mr. Parks asked if the staff that had been approved for the boot camp had been transferred as well. Ms. Crawford said yes, and continued saying that this was a program, so as they moved the kids, the program moved, and when they brought them back the program would return with them. Mr. Parks questioned if the 60 youth housed in the boot camp would be available to work for the Nevada Division of Forestry crew. Ms. Crawford answered yes, and the area where the boot camp would be housed would be programmed in camp activities of some type.
Senator Jacobsen said the Division of Forestry crew was a dual ownership situation, where the prison was responsible for the custody of the inmates and the Division of Forestry was responsible for the work that had to be accomplished. He said the Division of Forestry published a monthly work schedule of each camp, and advised staff to get a copy. He said by reading through it they would see what each camp accomplished in a month and see where crews were assigned. Senator Jacobsen said the publication was one of the greatest assets in Nevada, during the fire season, because it represented about 2,500 firefighters. He added the firefighters were trained, and not sent out without the knowledge of how to protect themselves.
Senator Jacobsen asked Dr. Ted D'Amico, Medical Director, Department of Prisons, if he would like to make a comment regarding the camps, and asked if the camps were any problem, medically. Dr. D'Amico said at the present time, there had been no major problems at any of the camps. He said they were operating well. He said the camps were served on a bi-monthly basis with a physician, or a physician extender, and on a monthly basis with nursing staff. He said the procedures were standard, and he was satisfied.
Mr. Beers said that what had been described by Ms. Crawford in regard to what had happened with the boot camp, was not in the budget narrative. He asked her to have the information reconciled and get back to the committee.
DEPARTMENT OF PRISONS, JEAN CONSERVATION CAMP – BUDGET PAGE PRISONS-134
Senator Jacobsen requested testimony on Budget Account 101-3748.
Mr. Rexwinkel said the Jean Conservation Camp had an inmate population of 169 in FY2000. He said it was an all female camp. It was projected to have a population of 210 for FY2002 and 209 for FY2003. That resulted in a cost per day of $14.50 in FY2000 and was projected at $16.07 in FY2002 and $16.82 in FY2003. He said they had 15 positions in the base budget and that would remain the same during the current biennium. He discussed decision unit E-710 and explained that the request was for four new chairs equaling a total of $960 and four radios at $741 each, for a total of $2,964. He said other than that business was pretty much as usual.
Senator Jacobsen said that the camp was the greatest thing going as far as the Veteran's Cemetery was concerned. He said there was considerable effort put in there, especially with the new chapel. The chapel was running about three to four services a day. Senator Jacobsen added the inmates helped to maintain the camp and kept it looking beautiful.
Mr. Parks said that utilities were a major factor in the budgets. He asked if further analysis had been done
regarding the projection of utility costs for all the facilities. He said when the committee got ready to
finalize the budgets, they would want to be comfortable that they had the best
handle on the issue.
Mr. Rexwinkel said they did not have anything currently to offer the committee but they had been working on it. He said with the continual changes, it was hard to get it all worked out. He said the Department of Prisons did have major utility needs, adding that for heating some of the facilities used electricity and some used fuel oil, natural gas, or propane.
Senator Jacobsen asked if anyone from the audience would like to make a comment.
Bob Gagnier, Executive Director, State of Nevada Employees Association, introduced himself and, in response to a question raised earlier, said in the first six months of the current fiscal year, 117 correctional officers left the Department of Prisons; 29 of them citing that the reason they left was to go to work for local government. Senator Jacobsen asked it that was because of higher salaries. Mr. Gagnier said they could not say for sure.
Mr. Beers said the information received regarding the Jean Conservation Camp indicated there would be a vacancy of 8 percent through the biennium. He said that it was about $30 a day less to have them housed at the Jean Conservation Camp rather than the North Las Vegas facility. He expressed curiosity as to why they had a vacancy.
Glen Whorten, Chief, Classification/Planning, Department of Prisons, answered that the beds were filled as inmates qualified for minimum custody, and if they did not qualify for minimum custody, they could not be placed at the Jean Conservation Camp. He said the department had statutory and regulatory prohibitions on minimum custody. He said they put as many as they could there. He explained that you could place a minimum custody inmate in a medium security bed, but you could not place a medium, or close custody, inmate in a minimum bed. Mr. Beers asked if the department planned to put any minimum security prisoners in the North Las Vegas facility, and Mr. Whorten answered that there would be a few, but they were trying to reduce the amount. He added that they had about 30 minimum security inmates at the North Las Vegas facility currently, but the reason they had minimum security status was for medical transportation, and they were not the kind of individuals that could be housed at the Jean Conservation Camp, because of their medical requirements. Mr. Whorten said there were items in the budget to improve the medical structure at the Jean Conservation Camp and hopefully, as the medical structure improved, they would be able to take more of the inmates out of the North Las Vegas facility.
Being no further questions, Senator Jacobsen adjourned the meeting at 10:29 a.m.
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:
Kathryn Fosnaugh
Committee Secretary
APPROVED BY:
Senator Lawrence E. Jacobsen
DATE: