Assistant director wraps up state service

When Larry Hastings applied for his boss' s job at the Nevada Department of Transportation, he showed up for his oral exams in a clown suit.

He didn't get the job, but he made his point.

"It was to make a point that this whole thing has been a circus," said Hastings, a 31-year state employee. "The deputy director was on the oral board. Just the look on his face was worth it."

The clown costume was Hastings' protest of the state's treatment of its assistant director of planning, Tom Fronapfel.

Fronapfel's last day was Monday. On Tuesday, the 19-year state employee underwent surgery for a hernia.

Fronapfel said he accepted a deal with the state to drop a federal lawsuit and resign his position.

Under the settlement approved by the Nevada Board of Examiners on Oct. 9, Fronapfel will get $130,000 severance pay for the $82,000-a-year job.

He said he had 90 days to accept the settlement.

"They gave me a 90-day window, and yesterday was the end of 90 days," he said Tuesday.

Fronapfel was recovering at home from double hernia surgery on Tuesday night.

"I'll be sore for a while," he said. "It worked out well. I'll be able to sit around and relax for a little while."

Fronapfel said he would not be surprised if things at the state returned to the way they were before he arrived.

He said he has no immediate plans for employment, and will just recover from his surgery.

The head of the metropolitan planning department, Hastings was one of seven applicants who took the examination on Dec. 13. Final interviews for Fronapfel's job were Tuesday.

"I was just going through the motions," he said. "I had a can of tuna in my pocket and I was going to pull it out and say, 'Open this up and this won't smell as bad.' I think I made a point."

Hastings said the panelists at his oral exam couldn't comment on his dress.

"They couldn't say anything about it," he said. "They would have been discriminating based on the way I looked. So, they had to sit there for 30 minutes."

Hastings said Fronapfel was the best person for the planning job.

"The best guy for the job is leaving today," Hastings said on Monday. "The way they treated Tom was beyond belief."

This is not the first time Hastings applied for the job as assistant director, though last time he didn't wear a clown suit.

"When Tom got the job, I finished number one on the list," Hastings said. "I told myself that this guy was going to have to prove himself to me. He did more in three months than his predecessor did in three years. He just had so much to offer."

Fronapfel's lawsuit stemmed from a March 18, 1996, plan to put the state's Metropolitan Planning Division directly under state transportation Director Tom Stephens.

Fronapfel, who was assistant director of planning, fought the move. He sought an opinion from the Attorney General's Office, saying he believed the move was in violation of Nevada law.

The deputy attorney general assigned to the transportation department, Brian Hutchins, didn't immediately issue an opinion on the matter. In the meantime, Stephens reconsidered the move and rescinded it.

Fronapfel claims that shortly after thwarting the move, he was the subject of retaliation from his supervisors, something they deny.

Under Nevada law, employees who expose wrongdoing are protected from harassment from their supervisors.

Fronapfel filed whistle-blower actions against the state in January and October of 1997. A few months later, Hutchins issued an opinion on the issue of moving the department saying it was OK for the department to make such a move.

Fronapfel previously worked for the Nevada Department of Environmental Protections from 1982 to 1994, when he was hired to be assistant director of planning.