The LVRJ is reporting that Bob Loux has finally resigned. (Go here for a refresher on Loux.)
Loux, age 59, apologized to the commission (and the public) for giving himself and other agency staffers unauthorized pay increases.
Gov. Gibbons has ordered that the salaries in question be corrected to the approved amounts and has asked that the Department of Personnel obtain repayment of the excess.
“This action will ensure that the general fund is reimbursed…and will also ensure that any retirement benefits to employees of the Agency for Nuclear Projects are based on the correct salary levels,” the LVRU reports Gibbons to have said.
Loux’s salary has been rolled back to the 2006 budgeted amount of $104,497 and his retirement will be based on a percentage of his three highest pay years, excluding the unauthorized ones.
Still a pretty good deal for a guy who, according to Stuart Waymire, holds a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Nevada, Reno, did not have credentials for the job, and has done more than anyone to get in the way of a civil, intelligent discussion about Yucca Mountain. (I’ve got excerpts from a book Waymire wrote here.)
Anyway, Loux is out.
As the flight attendants cheerfully say at the end of long, tedious flights, “Buh-Bye now.”
Tags: agency, Blogs of Nevada, Bob, governor, Loux, nuclear, resigns, retirement, salary
Whoa, I almost missed this part of the story! Check it out:
Bob Loux, Grand Propaganda Poobah for Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Policy Office, didn’t just redistribute funds in the form of unauthorized 2008 raises. Apparently he’s been over-paying himself and his staff for years.
According to figures released by the governor’s office yesterday, Loux over-paid himself and his staff (i.e. exceeded his budgeted salary amount) for fiscal year 2007 by 6.69 percent. This year, he exceeded his budget by 12.06 percent. And for next year, he was planning to exceed by 18.99 percent.
As for his personal salary, Loux was budgeted to be paid $114,088 this year but jacked up his salary more than 27 percent to $145,718. He was budgeted to be paid $114,088 again next year (due to the statewide salary freeze) but set himself up to rake in $151,542 instead.
Here’s the kicker: These raises look to be about more than just the immediate extra cash. Turns out Loux is eligible to retire on October 8, 2008. And his already generous retirement package will/would reported be based on his ending salaries for his final three years of service. So it sure appears as if Loux was jacking up his salary in an effort to rip off taxpayers for higher retirement benefit over the next twenty or thirty years.
Assemblyman Morse Arberry was right on Tuesday. Bob Loux shouldn’t just be fired; he ought to be prosecuted and thrown in jail. AND stripped of his inflated retirement benefit.
(Hat Tip to Chuck Muth’s News and Views.)
Tags: Blogs of Nevada, Budget, Gibbons, law, Loux, NWPO, raise, retirement, salary
Posted by E!!
on September 10, 2008
Balanced Budgets,
Blogs of Nevada,
Cold Hard Cash,
Corruption and Greed,
Energy Policy,
Fleecing the Taxpayers,
Giant Egos,
Government Spending,
Moral Bankruptcy,
Yucca Mountain /
1 Comment
According to the AP, Bob Loux – head of Nevada’s Nuclear Waste Projects Office (NWPO) – took an ex-employee’s salary and gave it to himself and the rest of his staff in the form of double-digit pay increases. In doing so, Loux exceeded his approved budget and raised his own six-figure salary to over $132,000 a year – significantly more than the earnings of many state department heads.
Assemblyman Morse Arberry said Loux could be thrown in jail because “it’s unlawful for any state officer to do what he’s done.” Speaker Barbara Buckley noted that other state employees have received raises of just 2 percent while pulling double and even triple-duty because of a hiring freeze.
With this attempted swindle by Loux, the NWPO’s days of unsupervised slush-funding may finally be coming to an end. A full agency audit is now to take place.
It has been suggested by some that Loux should “pay back” the money. I agree – but first, he should do the other honorable thing and resign.
You can help by contacting the NWPO directly and urging Mr. Loux to quit, or by demanding that the seven members of the Nevada Commission on Nuclear Projects (Dick Bryan, Susan Brager, Larry Brown, Joan Lambert, Steve Molasky, William Roberts and Paul Workman) give him his walking papers.
Here’s the contact information: nwpo@nuc.state.nv.us or call toll-free: (800) 366-0990.
Tags: Arberry, audit, Blogs of Nevada, Bob Loux, Buckley, Budget, department, Dick Bryan, increase, Joan Lambert, Larry Brown, nuclear, Nuclear Waste Projects Office, NWPO, Paul Workman, salary, state, Steve Molasky, Susan Brager, waste, William Roberts
