What began as a trickle of changes has turned into a mass exodus from the governor's office.
In less than one month, fully half of Jim Gibbons' Carson City staff has resigned, including his four top lieutenants.
Chief of Staff Josh Hicks resigned three weeks ago. He was quickly followed by governor's legal counsel Chris Nielsen and Nielsen's assistant Kelly Chouinard, who announced their departures two weeks ago. Nielsen will remain at least until the end of the month.
After she was passed over for chief of staff, Deputy Chief of Staff Mendy Elliott submitted her resignation this week. Robin Reedy, newly appointed chief of staff, confirmed that she told Elliott to take this week off as vacation to reduce some of the time she is owed by the state.
She starts a new state job in the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation on Monday.
She will be followed out the door by Legislative Director Jodi Stephens, who has resigned effective the end of August.
In addition, Aug. 7 will be the last day for Wade Iverson, who handles boards and commissions for Gibbons. His departure, however, was planned nearly a year ago when he was admitted to law school at Texas Tech.
That leaves just six staffers in Carson City, including three of Gibbons' original staff members - outreach liaison JoJo Armijo, office manager Tina Burke and his secretary and scheduler Deanna Lazovich, plus public information officer Dan Burns.
None of those leaving would comment on why they were doing so or on reported problems within the governor's office. But there have been rumors some upper-level staffers were upset by the amount of influence Gibbons' "kitchen cabinet" of outside advisers has on policy.
Reedy said she hasn't done anything in the three days she's held that post to cause the resignations, but that she did tell staff she wants to discuss making some organizational changes in the office with them.
"I'm not sure the organizational chart in the end will look as it does now," she said. "There is going to be a reorganization. I'm looking at everyone's job, how it gets done."
She said there are often changes after the end of a legislative session and that most of the departures, she believes, are just cyclical.
"After two, two and a half years, the pressure, the constant barrage of press, I just think it's a natural occurrence."
Reedy said the office can still operate in the short term, especially with Nielsen and Stephens agreeing to stay on for a while.
"But clearly we need to hire more people," she said.
Reedy said there are no plans to make changes in who is running the different state agencies.
"I think the cabinet as it stands is very good," she said.
She said some of the changes in the governor's office will start to become apparent in a couple of weeks.
Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at gdornan@nevadaappeal.com or 687-8750.