The firing of Assemblyman Wendell Williams from his job with the city of Las Vegas highlights two ethical issues, one of which was easily resolved and another that can only be answered by the quality of a person's character.
The first - the easy one - is whether Williams' actions deserved to get him fired. A private employer likely would have canned him long ago. There was ample justification.
But we raise this as the second question: What if his job with the city of Las Vegas was really to be a member of the Nevada Assembly every other year? What if the unspoken, unwritten understanding was that Williams, a liberal minority with expert political skills and significant standing on legislative committees, was a much better bargain than hiring another lobbyist?
The public has been led to believe that Williams' $80,000-a-year job with the city's Neighborhood Services Department was a charade - the kind that required mainly a figurehead and not much work. So whose fault is that?
Williams' response to the allegations against him, on the few occasions he has spoken to the press since multiple allegations of double-dipping and cell-phone misuse and so on have surfaced, has seemed defensive and defiant. We get the impression he believes he was doing his job.
So while it's impossible to defend Williams for his lapses, it's more relevant to taxpayers who paid his salaries to question the kind of political gamesmanship within city and state government that allows such a situation to arise.
The inevitable conclusion is that city and county employees should not be allowed to serve in the state Legislature. Yet bad examples can make for bad laws.
We believe it is possible for someone to have a legitimate local-government job, to take a leave of absence while the Legislature is in session, to be able to distinguish between his duties, and to abstain from voting when there are conflicts of interest. In short, we cling to a standard of integrity and honesty in public office.
If Wendell Williams is an example of poor judgment, lax supervision and political convenience, then his firing and the demotion of his supervisor will suffice.
