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Commissioner Barnes: Dissolve environmental services department

He says idea is not a personal attack on Don Benton

By Stephanie Rice
Published: November 5, 2014, 12:00am

Clark County Commissioner Ed Barnes, a Democrat who has only eight weeks left to serve, suggested Tuesday that commissioners consider dissolving the Department of Environmental Services.

His suggestion did not appear to be taken seriously by Republican Commissioners David Madore and Tom Mielke, who last year hired state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, to lead the department.

Barnes, who made the recommendation at the end of Tuesday’s meeting, said it wasn’t a personal attack on Benton.

The department was created five years ago, and Barnes said commissioners routinely look at other departments to determine if there are ways to create efficiencies and save money.

The environmental services staff could be reassigned to the community development and public works departments, which handled most of the responsibilities before the county created the new department in 2009, Barnes said.

Public works could take solid waste, clean water, conservation and legacy lands, vegetation management and environmental permitting for county capital projects. Community development could take forestry, biology and private environmental permitting, Barnes suggested.

Barnes said Madore often tells a story about talking with a little old lady concerned about being taxed out of her home when he ran for office two years ago, and he uses it as an example of why he fights for a smaller, smarter government.

Three Department of Environmental Service positions — director, finance manager and administrative assistant — could be eliminated. That would save the county $713,225 over the next two years in employee costs, Barnes said. He said his suggestion wasn’t “poking at the director in any way, shape or form,” but believes the department hasn’t worked out.

“I think there’s a duplication there that the taxpayers are paying for, and I would hope that the commissioners would take a look at this with an open mind as a way to save money,” Barnes said.

Mary Keltz, a county spokeswoman, confirmed the estimated savings with the county budget office.

Keltz said Nick Cimmiyotti handles finances for the Department of Environmental Services and his title is administrative service manager. She said “administrative assistant” is a job classification that could apply to different people.

Neither Madore nor Mielke took kindly to Barnes’ idea.

Madore said Barnes should have discussed the idea with Clark County Administrator Mark McCauley before airing it in public. Barnes said he did speak to McCauley, and McCauley told him it was his duty as a commissioner to bring up any cost-savings ideas with the rest of the board.

Madore said Benton has done a great job of cutting costs.

Mielke told Barnes he didn’t have an appreciation for the history behind the department of environmental services. Mielke campaigned on creating a separate department because previously “we had environmentalists in every department” and people had to go to different departments to secure a permit.

“That didn’t make sense,” Mielke said.

The county created the department by combining three small departments and parts of public works and community development.

Kevin Gray, at the time the deputy director of the public works department, beat out 106 applicants to lead the new department.

In early 2013, Gray resigned after accepting $59,064 in severance pay commissioners offered him after he filed for whistleblower protection. Gray filed for protection following a dispute with Mielke over an investigation of misuse of county funds and resources involving one of Mielke’s friends and campaign donors; Mielke later denied he was trying to have Gray fired.

Barnes, a community activist and labor leader, was appointed to the board in June by Madore and Mielke to temporarily fill the vacancy left by Steve Stuart, who resigned in April. Voters were favoring Democrat Craig Pridemore over Republican Jeanne Stewart in the race for Barnes’ seat in Tuesday’s election.

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