Payroll records contradict Oceguera, Gillespie and unsigned ‘agreement’
By Steven Miller – Nevada Policy Research Institute
LAS VEGAS — Assembly Speaker and North Las Vegas Assistant Fire Chief John Oceguera has repeatedly insisted publicly that he worked and was paid by the City of North Las Vegas for “only” nine hours a week during this year’s legislative session in Carson City when he was also being paid as a Nevada legislator.
In an interview with Nevada Journal, Oceguera said, “I was paid for nine hours a week [during the session] and the rest of the time was accrued vacation or furlough time, meaning I did not get paid.”
Oceguera’s boss, Fire Chief Al Gillespie, repeated the same talking points in television and print interviews and a letter to the editor published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “During the legislative session,” asserted Gillespie, “Oceguera was paid for only nine hours of work a week, and for the rest of the time he was on either unpaid leave or used accrued vacation time.”
The fire department also produced an agreement between Oceguera and the City of North Las Vegas, which states he would only be paid for nine hours a week during the session.
City of North Las Vegas payroll records, however — obtained last week by Nevada Journal — flatly contradict Oceguera, Gillespie and the written agreement.
The records indicate that during the 2011 Legislature, Assistant Fire Chief Oceguera spent almost twice the number of days on the city payroll as he previously said.
