Contract awarded to elected official

Nevada officials have begun awarding contracts for "green jobs" training projects that will be funded by federal money " and one consulting contract for $48,000 or possibly more has been awarded to a Clark County commissioner.

The contract was awarded by the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation to Lawrence Weekly. According to internal documents at the Legislature, the purpose of the contract was listed as "green jobs training coordinator " Southern Nevada," with the contract starting last month.

Weekly said that although he has seen other elected officials accept state contracts, he held off on accepting the offer because he feared a conflict of interest.

Weekly said he asked the Clark County district attorney's office for an opinion and was told that based on his role, there was not a conflict.

DETR spokeswoman Mae Worthy explained that the department awarded a contract to a private job agency for $120,000 to fund two part-time positions. Both will facilitate a program to train a renewable energy workforce how to weatherize homes and increase energy efficiency. The job agency then entered into the contracts.

Weekly's contract was listed in the Legislature's documents as $60,000, but Weekly says he will get about $48,000. Job agencies typically charge fees which could explain the difference.

Weekly said he was hired to conduct outreach and help develop curriculum for training programs. He added that the part-time job requires a minimum of 20 hours per week, but says he has been doing less than that.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks has been working on legislation that would restrict the state's ability to award contracts to elected officials and public employees. Her bill, AB463 passed out of both houses and was sent to Gov. Jim Gibbons last week.

"His contract was clearly listed by the agency as a consulting agreement," Smith said. "Why are they using a temp agency? When you use a temp agency it costs us a lot more money."

"I think we have to be really vigilant about the process of hiring consultants," Smith added. "And considering that we hired this consultant and we haven't even passed the bill about green jobs, that concerns me. Not because of the person, but because of the process."