Senate votes to give governor more power over appointees

The Senate has unanimously approved a bill giving the governor full power to remove his appointees from office.

SB14 was approved 21-0 and forwarded to the Assembly for consideration.

Sen. James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, said the bill declares all gubernatorial appointees civil officers of the state and gives him the power to remove appointees for misconduct in office, incompetence or neglect of duty unless a specific statute provides a different removal procedure.

He said that would include appeals officers who could be removed during their term for those violations. The offending officer would be given 435 days notice unless the governor determined the circumstances require immediate removal of the appointee.