Perkins successfully incorporates his roles as pensioner and lobbyist

Aunt Frances and I were teasing each other when she turned to her 5-year-old daughter and said, "Call Jane a taxi." Without hesitating my little cousin, mustering all the contempt she could, spat out a one-word epithet: "Taxi!"

A phrase that meant one thing evolved into another meaning, and became a family joke because a kid didn't understand its meaning. I remembered the taxi story while pondering how the folks in Henderson could look at Richard Perkins and see a corporation, not a man.

Guess if you want something, that's what you do: You change the definition so it fits your need and it's "legal."

Perkins, the former Assembly speaker and former Henderson police chief, was the poster boy for lush pension benefits for government workers in reporter Frank Geary's story a week ago. Perkins, 47, is receiving an estimated $99,400 a year in pension benefits for his 25 years on the Henderson police force, retirement pay he contends is well deserved.

Perkins told Geary, "If you look at the private sector, I don't think anybody is going to complain about a $99,000-a-year retirement."

Actually, they did. Readers of the story argued back and forth in the newspaper's online version. Police, firefighters and teachers argued they deserve the pensions while those less fortunate pension-wise in the private sector argued they didn't.

Perkins' situation isn't typical and is complicated by his new lobbying job with the city of Henderson. In January, he was hired at $120,000 a year for two years to act as the city's lobbyist. The contract wasn't put up for bid. His hometown decided no one but Perkins would do.

Under Nevada law, a retiree in the PERS system is not allowed to double dip and collect a pension and a government salary at the same time (although some exceptions have been made in the past for critical needs jobs). Henderson got around this because he's no man, he's a corporation -- Richard Perkins Co. -- a corporation with a contract with the city rather than a salary.

Presumably there was a reason lawmakers thought people shouldn't be double dipping, taking a pension then going back to the trough for another government salary. He'll be triple dipping because eventually he'll get a small pension for his legislative work as well.

The debate over public employees' pension benefits will be a major issue during the legislative session that began last week. The SAGE (Spending and Government Efficiency) Commission recommended reducing benefits for new employees covered by the Public Employees' Retirement System and Gov. Jim Gibbons has embraced the idea. But the debate will be contentious.

When Gov. Kenny Guinn tried to reduce benefits for future employees, he lost the fight. But economic times have changed and even with Democrats in control of the Assembly and state Senate, Gibbons might fare better than Guinn did in passing what he calls a reform and government workers view as butchery.

Perkins, who served in the Assembly for 14 years, knows the law and knows how to work the system. He's not doing anything illegal. However, he has a history of a lack of transparency. Back in March 2007, while still police chief, Perkins formed a political consulting business. And he refused to say who his clients were because the law didn't require him to.

Henderson approved his side business and only after it became a public flap did he tell the city manager who his three clients at that time were. I squealed about it to no avail. Perkins never publicly revealed who his clients were.

For the next 18 months, until he retired as police chief in September 2008, Perkins was both a police chief and a political consultant with unidentified clients under his previous corporation RDP Strategies. Can you spell C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T?

He insisted it was his private business. Henderson officials agreed. (When it comes to Perkins, Henderson officials are most agreeable.)

Hope Henderson gets what it's paying for because it's spending more than any other local government in Clark County on three contract lobbyists. Henderson's $290,000 for contract lobbyists this year is roughly $100,000 more than the city of Las Vegas or Clark County.

Let's see whether Perkins -- Corporation! -- delivers for Henderson.

Jane Ann Morrison's column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/morrison.