The state of Nevada refuses to divulge how much it has paid former employees for their unused sick and vacation leave.
Since October, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has sought comprehensive information documenting how much money individual employees received when they retired, resigned or were fired. The request, if fulfilled in its entirety, would encompass employees spanning from department executives to rank-and-file workers such as DMV clerks.
The Review-Journal is seeking the records to better understand which former public employees financially benefit the most from policies that allow them to accrue and then collect hundreds of hours of unused time off.
“The Review-Journal has, unfortunately, seen a lot of ridiculous refusals to release public records,” Managing Editor Glenn Cook said. “But this is among the worst. Compensation records are indisputably public. Any member of the public can learn the annual salary of any public employee in the state. Yet the state asserts that paid-leave cashouts are confidential. There’s only one reason to so blatantly violate state law: to try to hide something.” Read more…