Both of them earned it
So, apparently one of the knocks on Assembly Speaker John Oceguera – running for Congress against Rep. Joe Heck in the 3rd District – is that he’s a “double-dipper.”
In other words, Oceguera earned a salary and a pension from his full-time job on the North Las Vegas Fire Department, as well as earning a salary and a pension from his service in the Nevada Legislature, where he served for 12 years.
But if conservatives hate Oceguera because he’s a double-dipper, they’re going to really hate Heck. He’s soon to be a triple dipper!
Heck is an osteopathic physician who ran his own private medical company, Specialized Medical Operations, Inc. But his clients included government agencies, such as the Southern Nevada Health District, University Medical Center and Metro Police.
The salary he was paid may have come from his private company, but it was drawn from public dollars. And before anybody starts trying to split hairs, imagine what people would say if Oceguera had his own private fire-suppression firm that contracted with North Las Vegas to extinguish blazes.
Heck also earned a salary and a pension from the U.S. Army, where he’s attained the rank of full colonel and commands a medical unit in the reserves. He’s been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
And now, Heck is working his way towards earning his third pension, in the United States House of Representatives. That may be why Heck introduced a bill last week to let members of Congress opt out of the federal retirement system, which currently is mandatory for members of Congress. If his bill is approved, he’d keep his $188 monthly contribution, and get nothing when the golden years come around.
So, there you have it: Oceguera, double-dipper. Heck, triple-dipper. What a scandal, right?
No. Wrong.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Heck’s pensions, or Oceguera’s, either. Heck worked hard to attend medical school and get his degree. He took a risk setting up his own company, and he provided a valuable public service under contract to local governments. He saved lives in the UMC trauma center, and in the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan, while putting his own life on the line.
In short, he earned his money, and he earned every penny of his retirement. (And the same goes for his House pension; he’s earning it by representing the people of Southern Nevada. If he doesn’t want it, that’s his choice. But no one should begrudge him if he accepted it.)
But the same is true for Oceguera: He earned his money putting out fires, and saving lives here in Southern Nevada, also at personal risk to his own life. It’s a fair bet most of his critics have never rushed into a burning building, while everybody else was rushing out. Oceguera earned his pay and his pension, having worked his way up the ladder to assistant chief of the department.
And while it’s true Oceguera “bought” several years in the Public Employees Retirement System, at his own expense, there’s nothing wrong or illegal about that. Plenty of public employees do it every year.
If Oceguera can be faulted, it’s for failing to take a full leave from his North Las Vegas job while serving his final two sessions in Carson City. He reported working from Carson City under an arrangement agreed to by the chief of the North Las Vegas Fire Department, but the better course of action would have been to separate his full- and part-time jobs.
Instead of criticism, Heck and Oceguera should be thanked for their service. Both earned their pay and their retirements, just as thousands of public-sector workers continue to do every day. From now on, let’s confine our criticism of “double-dippers” to the churlish folk heading toward the onion dip with a half-eaten chip.
Review-Journal political columnist Steve Sebelius is author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.
