8 Thursday, September i !, 1997 Pahrump Valley Gazette
Under the drumroll of the school bond issue
Expect the drumbeat to only get louder and more
frantic as the school board, the Pahrump Town Board, the
Pahrump Regional Planning Commission (PRPC) and
the Nye County Commission join forces to begin the long
process of driving it into your heads the absolute neces-
sity of the Nye County citizens to vote themselves a tax
increase and pass a school bond issue to provide funding
for new school construction in the Pahrump area.
This cacophony of sound and voice will be indispens-
able in order to inundate the mind and drown from your
consciousness any fleeting thoughts you may have about
the fact that Nye County has had the necessary and
prerequisite funds, many times over, right in the palm of
its hand in the recent past before being recklessly and
wantonly squandered by actions taken and not taken by
Nye County Administrative staff combined with the ad-
THIS MAN'S OPINION]
by Brent Mathewson
vice, consent and approval of the Nye
County Commission.
The untold multiple millions of dol-
lars that were flushed down the toilet
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because
of the manner in which the
Nye County Commission
allowed the Nye Regional
Medial Center (NRMC) in
Tonopah to be run, year af-
ter monotonous year, is
only indicative of the waste
that permeates the fiscal
policies of how Nye County
is run as a whole. In the
months right before the
state of Nevada took over
financial control of NRMC,
the floodgates of waste
were opened, so wide that
this hospital was losing in
excess of $200,000 per
month. The County was lit-
erally teetering on the very
edge of bankruptcy.
It is by no means a coin-
cidence that from the very
day the state took control
of this hospital, not one red
cent of unbudgeted county
funds have been expended
to keep its doors open. in
fact, the hospital is not only
running in the black but is
slowly building a cash re-
serve.
The exact fiscal policies
that drove NRMC to the
brink of ruin are rampant in
Nye County. They begin at
the top, where not only the
Nye County Manager, Les
Bradshaw, but alsohis spe-
cial assistant, Rachel
Nicolson, drag down six
figure salaries that are well
in excess of the governor
of the state.
Millions are spent on
high priced consultants to advise top level county person-
nel on mundane matters. Service contracts are purchased
as a matter of course that are so expensive, that if the
equipment involved broke down completely and had to
be junked in one quarter of its expected life-span, it
would be cheaper than buying the contract.
Twice a month, each and every month, month after
month, ad nauseam, these things go on. The latest Nye
County Commission meeting that took place on Septem-
ber 2, is as good an example as any. On that date the
commission agreed to pay a consultant fee or $145 and
hour- expected to exceed $12,000 in total- to advise the
county as to why its newly installed 911 system doesn't
work as advertised. The consultant firm hired to do this
job, the Warner Group, is the same company that provide
and installed the equipment in the first place.
At the same September 2 meeting the Commission
approved an expenditure, without going to bid, of $23,068
for some plumbing equipment for the Pahrump jail. Any
semi-competent high school student could purchase the
equipment involved for less than the approved expendi-
ture by spending fifteen minutes on a phone and fax
machine. For those who doubt that statement, you can
easily prove it to yourself. The purchase includes 44
sloan values at $95 each, 12 combo units manufactured
by Acorn- part number 1418-CT-2-BP-3 at $998 each
and 8 shower units, again from Acorn, part number 1941-
3-6x-RA- 1-25 at $364 each. The remaining $4,000 of the
approved expense is for miscellaneous piping and mate-
rials. The coup de grace at the September 2 meeting was
an approval to spend $8,000 to install a grease trap at the
Senior Center in Amargosa Valley. One has to wonder
whether the commissioners think they're spending pesos
or U.S. greenback dollars.
The point I am trying to make is that there is no end to
it. The mind-set of present people at the highest level of
Nye County Government, and knowingly or unknow-
ingly the commission as a whole, is to expend as much
and more, than they have at their disposal. In the final
analysis it doesn't really matter whether these excessive
expenditures of taxpayer money are being made because
of gross laziness and incompetence of the people in-
volved, or because someone - or group of people - are
getting a kickback. In the first instance people should be
fired or removed from office and in the second instance
some prison time would be in order. The bottom line is
that the Nye County taxpayer is getting royally screwed.
With the combination of Payment Equal to Taxes
(PETT) Fund monies coming into this county and the
blessing of net proceeds taxes available to us from some
of the largest gold mine operations in the world, sitting
not only on our doorstep but in our treasury, Nye County
should and could be one of the richest counties in the
United States of America. Incredulously we may yet go
bankrupt instead. People at the state level of government
from the Nevada Department of Taxation, are looking
seriously into this possibility at the present time.
Because of this state of affairs, if the voters were to
approve" a school bond issue at this time, or in the
foreseeable future, the entities that would invest in such
a bond would demand some of the highest interest rates
allowable by law. How much interest would you require
before considering a loan to a person on the verge of
bankruptcy?
The only known permanent cure for a gluttonous,.
obese person whose overweight condition is threatening
their life is to go on a diet.
Nye County should do no less.
That is this man's opinion.
copyright 1997 by Brent Mathewson
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