The number of retirees who took home six-figure annual payments from Nevada’s government pension system nearly doubled in recent years.
But because of a 2019 state law, officials release less information about the recipients.
A total of 4,856 people received at least $100,000 in pension payments from the Public Employees Retirement System in fiscal 2023. That’s up almost 90 percent from 2,562 such recipients in fiscal 2019, according to agency data.
The overall tally of retirees who collect a pension from PERS also climbed during that period, though not as quickly. The system had 81,861 benefit recipients at the end of fiscal 2023, up about 17 percent from 70,056 in fiscal 2019, according to annual financial reports.
Ian Carr, general counsel for the pension system, attributed the rising volume of lucrative payouts to multiple factors, including the expanded pool of retirees, higher wages that translate to bigger pensions and the boost in benefits that take effect in the fourth year of retirement.
“It’s kind of a compounding effect,” he said.
PERS sends pension payments to former state and local government employees in Nevada. It has not yet released its annual financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30, but data it provided to the Las Vegas Review-Journal showed 5,003 people grossed at least $100,000 in pension payments during that period.
The agency disclosed pensioners’ names and benefit amounts but no other information.
Additional details such as last employer, years of government service and retirement date used to be a matter of public record. But in 2019, the Nevada Legislature approved a bill that made pensioners’ information confidential, other than their names and annual benefit totals.
The biggest recipient in fiscal 2024, Anthony Delvecchio, received a pension of about $362,370 that year, according to PERS.
Transparent Nevada — an online database run by the Nevada Policy Research Institute that tracks government workers’ compensation — shows a person with that name worked for the Carson City School District, retired in 2010 and garnered a pension of about $67,730 in 2018.
Delvecchio could not be reached for comment.
Carr said he cannot comment on members’ accounts. But in general, he said, a larger-than-usual payment can result from benefits being suspended for a period of time and then reinstated, as the pensioner would retroactively receive the unpaid benefits.
In general, payment suspensions are often administrative-related, Carr noted, including failure to provide proper direct-deposit information.
Here were the top five pension recipients from PERS in fiscal 2024, according to data from the agency and Transparent Nevada:
— Anthony Delvecchio: $362,371.59.
— Chris Ault, former UNR football coach: $343,123.12.
— Donald O’Shaughnessy, former Clark County fire battalion chief: $319,935.03.
— Rossi Ralenkotter, former president and CEO of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority: $305,587.47.
— Roderick Jett, former Metropolitan Police Department undersheriff: $300,900.60.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342.
A recent Review-Journal letter to the editor mischaracterized Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto’s Southern Nevada Economic Development and Conservation Act, also known as the Clark County Lands bill. As the former executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, I wholeheartedly support this legislation, so I wanted to set the record straight.
Sen. Cortez Masto has been working on this bill for years in partnership with state and local governments, conservation groups like the NCL and local area tribes. It’s true that the Clark County lands bill would open 25,000 acres to help Las Vegas grow responsibly, while setting aside 2 million acres for conservation. It would also help create more affordable housing throughout the valley while ensuring our treasured public spaces can be preserved for generations to come.
What is not correct is that the money from these land sales would go to the federal government’s coffers. In fact, the opposite is true.
The 1998 Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act is a landmark bill that identified specific public land for future sale and created a special account ensuring all land sale revenues would come back to Nevada. In accordance with that law 5 percent of revenue from land transfers goes to the state of Nevada for general education purposes, 10 percent goes to the Southern Nevada Water Authority for needed water infrastructure and 85 percent supports conservation and environmental mitigation projects in Southern Nevada. This legislation has provided billions to Clark County and will continue to benefit generations of Southern Nevadans. Sen. Cortez Masto’s lands bill builds upon the act’s success.
So here’s the good news: All of the money generated from land made available for sale under Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill would be sent to the special account created by the 1998 law. Rather than going to an unaccountable federal government, the proceeds would continue to help kids in Vegas get a better education, bolster outdoor recreation and modernize Southern Nevada’s infrastructure.
I know how important it is that money generated from the sale of public land in Nevada stay in the hands of Nevadans, and so does the senator. That’s why she opposed a Republican effort last year to sell off 200,000 acres of land in Clark County and other areas of the country that would have sent those dollars directly to Washington.
Public land management in Nevada should benefit Nevadans. We should protect sacred cultural sites and beloved recreation spaces, responsibly transfer land for affordable housing when needed and ensure our state has the resources it needs to grow sustainably. I will continue working with Sen. Cortez Masto to advocate for legislation, such as the Clark County lands bill, that puts the needs of Nevadans first.
Paul Selberg writes from Las Vegas.
click to expand photos
Las Vegas High’s baseball team claimed a 3-2 home win over Coronado on Friday.
Las Vegas (9-13-1) next hosts Rancho at 10 a.m. Saturday. Coronado (13-14) hosts Chaparral at 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Nevada’s jobless rate is holding steady, but the state is still adding jobs.
A new report from DETR shows February’s unemployment rate unchanged at 5.3 percent, with the labor force growing by nearly 3,800 people.
MORE ON FOX5: Nevada unemployment rate rises to 5.3% in January
Nevada now has about 1.6 million nonfarm jobs, up 2.2 percent over the past year and 1,500 more jobs than in January.
“This month’s report shows a strengthening labor market,” said David Schmidt, Chief Economist. ”Compared to the report for January, the pace of job gains in the past year increased from 1.9% to 2.2%, building on what was already the fastest pace of job growth in the country. While the unemployment rate remained stable, the labor force participation rate rose to 63.7%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the national level.”
In Las Vegas, employment ticked up by 1,100 jobs in February, about 0.1 percent, and is up more than 25,000 jobs compared to last year.
Reno added 1,000 jobs on the month, while Carson City shed about 200 but is still slightly above where it was a year ago.
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