LETTER: No forgiving Gov. Sisolak for unemployment fiasco

Nearly six months ago, Gov. Steve Sisolak made the unprecedented decision to shut down the state economy, essentially firing hundreds of thousands of Nevadans. Making an executive decision of this magnitude should have prompted the realization that there would be a likewise unprecedented volume of claims for unemployment assistance.

A competent executive would have taken immediate steps to alleviate the obvious problems that might occur. The most obvious would be to change the requirement of weekly filings, even if only bi-weekly, which would obviously have halved the volume of weekly claimants. Another would have been to direct the unemployment agency to forego the usual checks, and set up a separate group to monitor those who would take advantage of the system. Many might claim that doing so would have opened the State to massive fraud, etc. But, of course, that isn’t the point. The point is to protect the citizens of Nevada.

Gov. Sisolak could still issue these directives. Any competent executive would. Unfortunately, we elected a party apparatchik who has no experience in governing and apparently is indifferent to learning on the job. Let’s not ever make that mistake again.