FOX5 Vegas - KVVUOceguera accused of double-dipping

Oceguera accused of double-dipping

A new report in a conservative journal accuses Assembly Speaker John Oceguera of double-dipping.

At issue is whether Oceguera was taking pay both as a legislator and in his civilian job as North Las Vegas assistant fire chief for the same days.

The accusation is in a new report in the Nevada Journal.

"The fact that he's paid on a salary basis, not an hourly basis, means that he was getting salary during the period in which he was legislating," said the article's author Steven Miller.

Oceguera did not comment for this story but had fire chief Al Gillespie explain his time card.

"During the time that Chief Oceguera was at the legislature he worked one day per week, took two days off per week for holiday or vacation and took an unpaid day for furlough," Gillespie said.  "That's roughly the 36 hours that theoretically we work."

But Miller countered, "He's quite explicit that every weekend he's been working for the fire department."

Gillespie said many of the weekends Oceguera worked in the North Las Vegas office, but he also fulfilled his duties from Carson City outside of legislative hours.

He also provided FOX5 with agreements of on-job expectations for Oceguera during the legislative session.

Gillespie added the department's time card system has two elements, one for scheduling with management always listed as on duty and another for time worked, which may have caused confusion.

"We just list them as the first day he got paid, next two days were holidays and last would be furlough," Gillespie said.  "Whether it was in that order every time didn't really matter because we're at will employees."

Miller says the appearance of impropriety by Oceguera could be due in part to a flawed tracking system.

"What we've got at the city of North Las Vegas is records that don't correspond to some hard clear reality," Miller said.