Sunday, December 05, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

IMPEACHMENT TRIAL: Senate lets controller keep job

Augustine convicted of least serious charge

Surrounded by her attorneys, Controller Kathy Augustine, center, reacts during her impeachment proceeding Saturday in the Senate chambers in Carson City. Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY -- Controller Kathy Augustine was convicted Saturday by the Senate on one article of impeachment for illegally using state equipment in her 2002 re-election campaign.

Despite the conviction, Augustine will remain in office to serve the remaining two years of her term.

In a 20-0 vote, the Senate censured Augustine, handing down the equivalent of a reprimand. The censure came after the Senate earlier in the day voted 14-7, the bare two-thirds majority needed, to convict Augustine on the least serious of the three impeachment charges against her.

She is the first official to be impeached and convicted in Nevada's 140-year history.

Augustine, who is in the middle of her second and final term as controller, was unapologetic following the unanimous vote for censure. She claimed the dismissal of two of three charges against her was a victory and said she would be back at work Monday.

"I want to thank all the members of the Senate for asking the tough questions that finally got to the truth of this entire matter," she said.

Augustine said the charges stemmed from two disgruntled former employees attempting to hurt her politically by making inflated claims about the amount of campaign work they had performed on state time.

She rejected claims that she was abusive to her staff. "We have a very effective management style in my office," she said.

Augustine said the trial, which lasted four days, was difficult for her and will cost her thousands of dollars in legal expenses.

"Character and personal assassination is always a very difficult thing," she said.

Augustine said she does not believe her political future has been ruined by the proceedings and would not discount a run for another political office in two years, including a seat in Congress. "That possibility always exists," she said.

Gov. Kenny Guinn, who called a special session of the Legislature to conduct the impeachment proceedings, issued a prepared statement saying Augustine's own admission of the campaign-related violations to the Ethics Commission earlier this year made the process necessary.

"I would like to compliment the Legislature in moving quickly and giving full and fair consideration to the matter," he said. "As far as I am concerned, the issue is closed, and I know Kathy Augustine will quickly return to serving the citizens of Nevada."

Guinn and other top Republicans had called on Augustine to resign after she pleaded guilty to three violations before the Ethics Commission in September. Augustine, who is paid $80,000 a year as controller, was fined $15,000 by the commission, the most in Nevada history for a public official.

On Saturday, Special Prosecutor Dan Greco recommended that Augustine receive a 60-day suspension without pay as punishment for her lone conviction.

Augustine's attorney, Dominic Gentile, sought censure.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, proposed the censure, saying Augustine already has been fined and publicly embarrassed.

The punishment, Raggio said, should send a message to elected officials to separate their campaign work from their official duties.

"It is distasteful for us to have to render judgment," he said.

However, Raggio said, a willful violation of the law did occur. "The judgment is not set forth to punish, but to send a message," he said.

Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, issued a statement following the vote, saying elected officials know that using state equipment or staff for campaign work is improper, no matter the cost involved.

"Some of us who voted to sustain the articles (of impeachment) feel that elected officials should be held to the highest standard, and that was not done today," said Titus, who voted for conviction on all three counts.

The likelihood that Augustine would be found guilty of any of the charges was in doubt early Saturday when the Senate, on an 11-9 vote, dismissed the first and most serious charge against her. That count alleged that Augustine used her assistant, Jennifer Normington, to work on her re-election campaign.

Only a simple majority vote was required to dismiss charges, unlike the two-thirds requirement for conviction.

Augustine then declined to present a case in her defense on the remaining two counts, one of using a state computer and the other of using state equipment on her campaign.

The Senate then voted 11-10 to convict Augustine of using the state computer, short of the 14 votes needed.

The vote on the third count, of using state equipment such as fax machines and telephones on her campaign, was enough for the conviction.

The vote to convict came after an impassioned plea by Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, for acquittal on all charges. Coffin said her impeachment by the Assembly three weeks ago was punishment enough.

"We have put the stain of impeachment on Controller Augustine for the rest of her life," he said. "I believe in acquittal. I believe in a clean judgment."

No one else spoke before the vote.

Voting with Coffin for acquittal on the third and final charge were Sens. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas; Barbara Cegavske, R-Las Vegas; Mike McGinness, R-Fallon; Dean Rhoads, R-Tuscarora; Sandra Tiffany, R-Henderson; and Maurice Washington, R-Sparks.

Coffin later abstained on the vote for censure.

Following the vote to convict, the Senate heard arguments from Greco and Gentile on what Augustine's punishment should be.

Greco said he originally had intended to seek to remove Augustine from office. But gaining a conviction on only the least serious charge made him unwilling to pursue a penalty that severe, he said.

Gentile said he was surprised and pleased that Greco did not seek to oust Augustine. But Gentile, who argued for only a censure, also made a case against removal.

"To remove Kathy Augustine from office for using phones and fax machines will not assist the public in trusting you," he told the Senate. "It would be a bizarre response."

Gentile also argued against the suspension without pay proposed by Greco because Augustine already had been fined by the Ethics Commission.

"You're harming the public if you take her out of that office for 60 days," he said. "Now you may be teaching her an additional lesson, but you know what, she doesn't need any more lessons here. She's been fined $15,000, and she has the scarlet letter of impeachment permanently emblazoned upon her."

Despite an earlier suggestion that Augustine should pay for the cost of the special legislative session if found guilty, Lorne Malkiewich, executive director of the Legislature Counsel Bureau, said he knew of no such discussions. The final cost of the special session will run between $150,000 and $200,000, he said.