Six of Mayor Hafen’s relatives on Henderson’s payroll
Six relatives of Henderson Mayor Andy Hafen are on the city payroll in full-time jobs, including his son, brother-in-law and two nephews.
All started work after Hafen became a City Council member in 1987, raising questions about whether the hires violated the spirit — if not the letter — of the state’s nepotism law.
Hiring close relatives of elected or appointed “municipal or county officers” is a gross misdemeanor under Nevada law, punishable by 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. But the state attorney general has said the statute only applies when the public official in question has “hiring authority.”
Hafen said there was nothing wrong with his relatives’ hires because Henderson’s city charter prohibits the mayor and council members from having any involvement in hiring or firing decisions.
Asked whether he thought his position played any role in their hires, even indirectly, Hafen wrote, “No. I’m not involved in any of that.”
But such hires go against the spirit of the anti-nepotism law, said Dale Eisman, a spokesman for Common Cause, a nonprofit group advocating for government ethics and accountability.
“One of the many reasons that people are cynical about politics and government is that public officials seem to not adhere to the spirit of the law,” Eisman said. “They follow the letter.”
‘NEVER BEEN AN ISSUE’
Even though Hafen cannot directly participate in the hires, he has had enormous power as a councilman and mayor. The five-member council, which the mayor chairs, controls the city budget. It also hires — and can fire — the city manager, who in turn is responsible for hiring other city employees.
Eisman said that raises concerns about hiring so many of a councilman’s relatives. He added, “Inevitably there’s a question … did they get some kind of preferential treatment when it actually came time to do the hiring?”
Asked whether he thought someone making a hiring decision might treat a Hafen differently, the mayor replied, “They shouldn’t, and to my knowledge it’s never been an issue. It would be a violation of our charter for me to be involved.”
After a staffer said he was not available to meet in person until May 18, the mayor declined to speak on the phone last week and asked for questions in writing.
In an email, he said he consulted with the city attorney last year after a similar issue was raised in Las Vegas. He said he has also reviewed opinions by the state Commission on Ethics and attorney general.
Hafen said he’s confident the hires did not violate the law, based on those opinions, because he has no “actual hiring authority.”
The city roster includes Hafen’s son Andrew, a firefighter, and his nephews Brian and Jason, a project engineer and senior customer service specialist, respectively. All were hired while Hafen was a councilman, but before he became mayor in 2009.
Kay Dalton, the brother of Hafen’s wife, is a senior construction project coordinator making more than $100,000 a year, according to data collected by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a Las Vegas-based conservative think tank.
The five other relatives in full-time jobs earn between $63,000 and $90,000, a city spokeswoman said. That’s more than the mayor’s $60,000 salary.
The mayor’s niece by marriage, Kortni Hafen, also works part time for a city recreation program for people with disabilities.
Brian Hafen said his uncle, then a councilman, played no role in his getting a job with the city nine years ago. A licensed civil engineer, he said he interned with the city while in college and worked in the private sector before returning to government.
Other Hafen relatives didn’t return calls seeking comment.
DEFINING NEPOTISM
There is a long history of nepotism across the country that Congress and some state lawmakers only started trying to rein in during the 1880s, said Peggy Kerns, who has studied the issue for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
“Really, in the 19th century, if you wanted to work for government, you supported the person and the campaign … and if you won, the job was the reward,” said Kerns, director of the conference’s Center for Ethics in Government. “And that included family, too.”
Nevada’s nepotism law, first passed in 1925, covers the hiring of relatives within the “third degree of consanguinity or affinity.” That includes children, grandchildren, siblings, nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles. Cousins are not covered, but close relatives by marriage are.
Andy Hafen’s first cousin once removed, Curtis, and Curtis’ wife, Farah, also work for the city. He is a meter services specialist, and she is an events coordinator. The mayor wrote that some family members who work for the city “aren’t closely related and I don’t keep up with where they are or what they are doing.”
The hiring of a Henderson council member’s relative has been controversial in the past. In 2013, Councilwoman Gerri Schroder’s husband, Glenn, was hired as a temporary full-time housing specialist, earning $24 an hour. He resigned about eight months later.
Gerri Schroder said at the time she had no role in her husband’s hiring, and city officials said he was chosen on his merits. But the position was not advertised before he was hired — a step the city said was not required for a temporary job.
Prosecutions for nepotism appear to be rare in Nevada. In 2002, the manager of the child care center at Western Nevada Community College in Carson City got a suspended sentence after admitting she hired her sister. A deputy attorney general prosecuted her. And a former College of Southern Nevada administrator was accused of nepotism in 2001, but a judge threw out the charge, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
In a 1973 opinion on the nepotism law that’s been cited since, the attorney general’s office wrote: “The basic purpose of the statute is to prevent bestowal of patronage by public officers in employing their relatives regardless of how qualified the employee may be.”
In his email, Hafen wrote, “I’d hope no one would ever be hired based on a name, nor would I hope anyone would ever be disqualified because of a name either.”
Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley.
