Senate Bill No. 85-Committee on Government Affairs
(On Behalf of Washoe County)
January 30, 1997
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Referred to Committee on Government Affairs
SUMMARY--Authorizes less office hours for branch offices of certain county officers. (BDR 20-678)
FISCAL NOTE: Effect on Local Government: No.
Effect on the State or on Industrial Insurance: No.
EXPLANATION - Matter in italics is new; matter in brackets [ ] is material to be omitted.
AN ACT relating to counties; authorizing less office hours for branch offices of certain county officers; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
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Section 1 NRS 245.040 is hereby amended to read as follows:
245.040 1. Sheriffs, county recorders and county auditors, county clerks, county assessors and county treasurers shall keep an office at the county seat of their county which , except as otherwise provided in subsection 3, must be kept open on all days except Sundays and nonjudicial days from 9 a.m. to 12 m., and on all days except Sundays, nonjudicial days and Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. for the transaction of public business, but nothing contained in this subsection interferes with [any] a duty now required of [any] a public officer under [any of] the election laws of this state. County clerks shall keep their offices open on all election days during the hours when the polls are open for voting but may, with the consent of the district judge of the county, close their offices for all purposes except election business and the issuance of marriage licenses on any day on which the primary or general election is held.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection 1, the board of county commissioners of any county may, by an order regularly made and entered in the records of its proceedings, designate the days and hours during which the offices of the sheriff, county recorder and county auditor, county clerk, county assessor and county treasurer must be kept open for the transaction of public business. [Any] An order so made and entered must require each office to be kept open for not less than 40 hours during each week, and must not prevent the county clerk from closing his office for all purposes except election business and the issuance of marriage licenses on primary and general election days as provided in subsection 1.
3. The board of county commissioners may authorize a county officer to rent, equip and operate, at public expense, one or more branch offices in the county. The branch office [must] may be kept open for the transaction of public business on the days and during the hours specified in subsections 1 and 2 [.] or on such days and during such hours as determined by the board. The provisions of this subsection do not preempt any other statutory provisions which require certain duties to be performed at the county seat.
4. A county officer who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and if an officer mentioned in subsection 1 absents himself from his office, except:
(a) When called away from his office by official duties;
(b) When expressly permitted so to do by the board of county commissioners or a majority of the members thereof in writing; or
(c) When he makes provision to leave his office open for the transaction of public business on the days and during the hours prescribed by this section and in charge of a deputy qualified to act in his absence,
there must be withheld from his monthly salary that proportion thereof as the number of days of absence bears to the number of days of the month in which the absence occurs. The money must be withheld from payment of salary to the officer for the next succeeding month by order of the board of county commissioners, but such an order must not be made without first giving the officer affected reasonable notice and an opportunity to appear before the board and defend the charge against him.