Vote of confidence expected for growth moderator

Larry Henry

Monday, March 2, 1998 | 10:10 a.m.

Amy Dirks Stevens, a consultant guiding the growth debate in Southern Nevada, is expected to receive a vote of confidence today despite controversy over her company's work at the proposed nuclear-waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

Stevens' contract was to come up for discussion at an afternoon meeting of the 21-member Southern Nevada Strategic Planning Authority.

"I don't see us firing her," Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson said last week. "A vote of confidence could help disperse a cloud over the authority."

Last week, Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., called for Stevens to be fired because she didn't disclose that her company, Jason Associates Corp., has a federal contract at the proposed nuclear-waste repository 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

In 1996, San Diego-based Jason Associates received a five-year, $20 million contract to conduct environmental-impact studies at Yucca Mountain for the Department of Energy.

A year later, Jason Associates received a $238,219 contract to moderate planning-authority meetings.

Bryan, a longtime opponent of nuclear-waste storage in Nevada, said the dual contracts present a conflict of interest.

"You can't help plan for the future of Southern Nevada and at the same time help bring nuclear waste to Nevada," Bryan said.

An overwhelming majority of Nevadans oppose the government plan to store radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain.

After Bryan's statement, confusion arose over what Stevens disclosed to the hiring subcommittee.

The source of the confusion was a newspaper political column last week hinting that Stevens made the disclosure.

However, in a recent interview with the SUN, Stevens conceded that she didn't disclose the Jason Associates contract at Yucca Mountain during the subcommittee interview.

A subsequent press release from Jason Associates also confirmed that the company didn't include any reference to the Yucca Mountain project in background material because it wasn't requested.

Stevens told the SUN she disclosed her work with a previous company at Yucca Mountain and on Jason Associates' DOE contract in Idaho.

But she said she didn't discuss the Yucca Mountain contract because the 1997 law that created the planning authority didn't require that disclosure.

She stressed that her job as moderator doesn't put her in a position to influence public policy.

Bryan spokeswoman Karen Kirchgasser said the senator believes Stevens should be fired regardless of what she disclosed during the hiring process.

"If there had been disclosure, they shouldn't have hired her," Kirchgasser said.

Neal Siniakin, a planning authority member, also called for Stevens to be fired.