by Michael Lyle, Nevada Current
Gov. Joe Lombardo’s proposals to effectively create a new layer of executive management for several state departments drew sharp questions from lawmakers Wednesday morning.
The governor’s chief of staff, Ben Kieckhefer, told a joining committee of Assembly Ways and Means and Senate Finance the administration wants to create multiple new cabinet-level positions. The office is still drafting the exact roles but Kieckhefer said it could include roles like secretary of education and secretary of commerce and labor.
The positions, which would cost an estimated $2.7 million over two years, wouldn’t replace those departments’ existing administrators.
Democratic state Sen. Dallas Harris questioned whether it would be more efficient to promote those existing heads to those roles rather than hiring, and funding, separate positions.
“Why not use our existing heads, pay them a little more… and bring them into the governor’s office … as opposed to adding a layer and five new folks?” Harris asked.
Several state departments, she added, are understaffed and would benefit from filling support positions, which would enable directors to step into cabinet roles.
While agreeing about efforts to fill vacancies and bolster staff, Kieckhefer said “some of our directors are already overstretched in some of their responsibilities,” which might make it harder for them to take on the cabinet role.
Kieckhefer said as a state senator in the previous legislative session he acknowledged the governor’s office, regardless of the administration, is under-resourced.
He said administrations spend the bulk of their time “working with departments and putting out fires and trying to manage state departments rather than leading strategic initiatives for the state and advancing the governor’s agenda.”
Under the envisioned proposal, those cabinet roles would instead be housed within the governor’s office and serve as liaisons between the governor and the department.
Kieckhefer added it would prevent questions “that don’t need to be elevated to us whether it’s a question about an amendment on a piece of legislation or a budgetary question.”
“If we can shift some of those types of issues into these new offices it will give the governor’s office more time to govern,” Kieckhefer said.
Lifting state salary cap
The governor’s office also told lawmakers it intends to bring forth another proposal – the office is still considering whether it will be in the same bill or separate legislation – to draft legislation to remove a provision from state law that limits salaries to 95% of the governor’s salary. The governor’s salary is about $160,000 annually.
The existing provision doesn’t apply to state-employed physicians or the Nevada System of Higher Education.
Kieckhefer said removing the cap would allow the state to retain and attract positions in high demand. The cap, he said, makes it harder to hire positions, including internet technology professionals and water engineers.
Democratic state Sen. Dina Neal asked about the historical intent behind that statute, but Kieckhefer didn’t know.
“The legislature is being asked to repeal a statute that then allows a cap to be removed,” she said. “The history behind that is very important to determine the public policy need, purpose and intent. It is important to understand why exactly it was in place in the first place.”
