14 Thursday, May 15, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
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Budget process frustrating
Continued from front page
Sheriff's department is overstaffed There
may not be enough personnel in Pahrump
with the burgeoning population, but some
people are asking "why do we have so many
in Tonopah," with the dwindling population,
"If the Sheriff is doing his homework, he
wilt have all the answers to these questions,
(at the budget hearings)," he said.
Weldon thinks that the commissioners are
trying to force the NCSO into a bargaining
situation with the Nye County Law Enforce-
ment Association (NCLEA). The NCLEA is
the union group that covers the sergeant
level and below.
"The NCSO has already met 4 times and
slashed the operating budget every where we
could," Weldon said. "We need $650,000
just for operating the offices in Pahrump,
Beatty, Tonopah, Gabbs, Smoky Valley,
Amargosa and Mercury."
"We cut all capital out. We lost 10 posi-
tions last year. $1.4 million is 23 positions."
"The only place we have left to cut is in
personnel," he said.
In explaining Sheriff Wade Lieseke's
statement of last week that the NCSO is
understaffed in detention facilities at Pahr-
ump and Tonopah, with both facilities being
well above capacity, and that could lead to a
large summary judgment, he recalled the
Sessions court case of a few years ago.
The case was decided against the county
in that it was found there was not adequate
supervision and the facilities were over-
crowded.
"It (the Sessions case) motivated the Sher-
iff to limit arrests in certain misdemeanors,
so that doesn't happen again. And that's not
a good situation for the county to he in,"
Weldon said.
(The budget process) is very frustrating,"
he added. "Who's leading the parade
here?" he asked. "You can't expect the
people following you (to follow) if you
don't lead them in a certain direction. We
took a survival posture and the lowest
figure we could go with to survive. It
basically decimates our department. Ac-
tually, it decimates YOUR department,"
he said.
"Realistically what's the most impor-
tant to you? Education and public safety
are the two most important to me as a
father and a citizen. Don't build the Pahr-
ump building. Don't build the Beatty
building (the proposed county complexes
in both areas). And use that money for
operations."
"This takes us back to '88 staffing lev-
els," and Pahrump has grown tremen-
dously since then, Weldon added.
When asked if the budget process was
always handled like this, Rodewald said,
"No, in '94 it was handled differently. We
went first to the department heads for their
input." But costs have gone up so much,
and with the borrowing of the Payments
Equal To Taxes (PETr) funds, the county
administrators have taken this different
approach.
"It's been a difficult time," Rodewald
said. "Cutting back on county services is
difficult."
The county commissioners meeting
scheduled in the Amargosa Valley Com-
munity Center on Farm Road for Monday,
May 19, promises to he a lively one. Se-
nior citizens in Pahrump are concerned
over procedure changes regarding their
operating bylaws and are organizing bus
loads of seniors to attend the meeting. The
budget questions are another area that will
garner a lot of attention.
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