Weekly quits ‘green initiatives’ post

CARSON CITY -- Clark County Commissioner Lawrence Weekly resigned from a $48,000-a-year part-time job as the state "green initiatives" outreach coordinator for Southern Nevada, legislators were told Wednesday.

Weekly resigned Tuesday at the advice of his lawyer less than three weeks after taking the state job through the Manpower temporary employment agency.

Weekly said he quit to defuse any concerns that he, an elected county leader, had conflicting interests. He has received a $1,866 check, with funds coming from a federal work investment program.

"I just want to step back and not have any appearances of conflicts," Weekly said.

He mistakenly thought the job paid $60,000 a year but learned that $12,000 goes to Manpower as a hiring fee, he said.

Weekly said that although he has seen other elected officials take state jobs, he was unsure about accepting the offer. He asked the Clark County district attorney's office for an opinion and was initially told that based on his role, there was no conflict.

The job entailed meeting with residents and telling them how they might get their homes weatherized, said Weekly, describing it as a "minimal kind of position" to which he could devote about 12 hours a week.

None of the work he was responsible for would come before the Clark County Commission, so it seemed free of conflicts, he added.

Then Deputy District Attorney Rob Warhola told him that the job might appear to conflict with his membership on a regional work force investment board because both received funding through the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Weekly said.

The job Weekly was hired to fill is unrelated to a "green jobs" bill from Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, said Larry Mosley, director of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation.

Under Horsford's SB152 now pending in the Legislature, unemployed workers would be trained for jobs on solar, wind and other renewable energy projects.

Mosley told the Assembly Ways and Means Committee that for the last year, he also has been setting up training to assist the unemployed in acquiring renewable energy jobs.

While Weekly has no background in renewable energy, Mosley said, he fit the criteria for the job: being able to work with business leaders in Las Vegas and reach out to jobless blacks in West Las Vegas.

"Who has a background in green energy?" asked Mosley, who, like Weekly, is black. "I was not looking at it from a political practicality. I needed someone immediately."

Because of the high unemployment rate in historically black West Las Vegas, mainly bordered by Carey Avenue, Bonanza Road, Interstate 15 and Rancho Drive, Mosley said it was important to have someone who could "knock on doors in the community that typically does not see faces other than their own."

He added the employment program being created is done in conjunction with other state agencies and with the approval of the Gibbons' administration.

Daniel Burns, spokesman for Gov. Jim Gibbons, said he was "absolutely certain" that Gibbons knew nothing about Weekly's hiring, although Burns praised Weekly.

Mosley said he hired Weekly through Manpower because it was quicker and cheaper for the state in the long run. He added he will have to find someone else quickly to perform the work, as well as a green initiatives coordinator in Reno.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, raised questions Tuesday about Weekly's hiring. She has a bill that awaits Gibbons' signature that would limit the use of contracts to hire state employees.

Smith said Wednesday it is disturbing that the state would pay $12,000 to Manpower to hire Weekly when he could have been hired through the state personnel system.

"Why pay a $12,000 fee to hire Lawrence Weekly if we can do it ourselves?" Smith asked.

Review-Journal writer Scott Wyland contributed to this report. Contact Capital Bureau reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@ reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.