Sisolak on unemployment delay: ‘It’s taken too long, I’ll give you that’

CARSON CITY — Amid endless frustration with delays in the processing and payment of unemployment claims in Nevada, Gov. Steve Sisolak said Wednesday he was in daily contact with the state’s unemployment division as it continues to work through the issues that continue to contribute to the backlog.

Among those complications: problems with fraud, federal requirements for how payments are processed and claimants using technology to repeat-dial call-in centers at the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

“I get daily briefings on DETR, I get daily briefings on COVID, I get daily briefings of the legislative session, now I’m getting daily briefings on wildfires,” the governor said in a brief interview Wednesday outside the Capitol as the Legislature met in special session to weigh budget cuts. “No one expected us to hit a situation where we get such an enormous amount of claims coming in a short period of time And then the (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) system is a whole new system that had never been done before for gig workers.

“It’s taken too long, I’ll give you that,” Sisolak continued. “But that being said, we’re still ahead of where other states are. We’re in the middle of the pack. And I talk to my colleagues on a daily basis, some governors from across the country I’m talking to on various issues, and (unemployment) is one of the issues we talk about. Others have gotten through more problems, some have got through less, and the ones that have gotten through less seem to be the ones that don’t have the demand. When you’re talking to areas — Montana, Wyoming, those kind of folks — they don’t have unemployment that we’ve got. They didn’t have the claimants. The ones that have massive claimants, whether that be Florida, Texas or Arizona, are facing the exact same situations we have.”

The unemployment division is without a director following the departure of its interim head, Heather Korbulic, who cited threats to her personal safety in choosing to return to her post at the Silver State Health Exchange in mid-June after seven weeks. Sisolak said Wednesday her replacement was still being sought.

“Through my staff we have direct contact with everyone at DETR,” he said. “We talk about what they’re facing, and everybody’s open to new ideas to try to get a handle on this, understanding that there’s an enormous fraud problem. Now some people don’t want to admit it, but there is.”

Federal rules on the gig worker claims create extra steps because of the federal money involved, he said.

“The Department of Labor came down with restrictions. We just cannot pay everybody and then say OK if it was fraudulent, if it was paid wrongly, give us the money back. It puts the entire program and everybody’s money in jeopardy, and we don’t want to do that, so we’re working with the Department of Labor, with our own folks, to make sure that we handle it as expeditiously and as cautiously as possible.”

People using phone apps for robo-calling, he said, “totally tied up our system, crashed it, and then other people couldn’t get in so nobody could get in.”

He added: “I know there’s an immediate need for the money. I totally get that. But everyone will be made whole as a result of everything they get once they’re viewed to be eligible for the program and entitled to benefits.”

Contact Bill Dentzer at bdentzer@reviewjournal.com or 775-461-0661. Follow @DentzerNews on Twitter.