Prison changes personnel, but not Director

There are significant personnel changes at the Nevada Department of Prisons but contrary to rumors, Director Bob Bayer isn't one of them.

Bayer said rumors he planned to leave grew more frequent when he began cleaning out and organizing files for the governor's new state agency review process.

"There are so many rumors, I had to put a sign on my office that says, 'I'm not quitting. I'm just remodeling,'" he said Friday.

In fact, he said he's just boxing up background materials and organizing his files as part of the governor's top-down review of how state agencies operate and what their budgets should be.

But Bayer said a number of his key people are leaving, most of them for promotions, including Assistant Director John Neill, who will move to the Nevada Department of Transportation at the end of the month.

He is also losing two wardens: Miles Long of Southern Nevada Correctional Center and veteran Nevada State Prison Warden John Ignacio of Carson City.

Long has taken a similar job in another state but Ignacio, who Bayer said started his Nevada Department of Prisons career the same year he did, is retiring.

Ignacio will leave his position in August.

Bayer said on top of those departures, Phil Nowak left as prison medical administrator, and auditor Carla Watson is joining the Legislative Counsel Bureau.

"And the Public Utilities Commission got Rex Reed, who did our population projections," he said.

Bayer said it speaks well of the prison system that most of those leaving are doing so for promotions.

"If you've got good people, sooner or later somebody's going to grab them up," he said. "But I'm not going anywhere that I know of."