Nevada subcontractors form group to fight for payments

Gary Thompson

Friday, Sept. 24, 1999 | 10:57 a.m.

Nevada trade contractors worried about an increase in payment defaults by general contractors are forming a new organization to lobby for changes in state laws.

The Nevada Subcontractors Association's first meeting will be at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the 2151 South Jones Blvd. offices of Ascentra, which is joining ALC Risk Management in sponsoring the session.

Ascentra and ALC are consulting firms whose representatives will offer subcontractors information on federal and state legislation designed to ensure construction companies are paid for their work.

More than 100 subcontractors who helped build the Venetian hotel-casino have filed liens totaling at least $300 million against the resort and its general contractor, New York-based Lehrer McGovern Bovis Inc. The claimants say they haven't been paid for work done on or materials supplied to the $1.5 billion Strip property.

One of the NSCA's organizers, Gene Newton of Saffles Construction, said the Venetian project isn't the only major Southern Nevada construction job in which subcontractors are failing to get paid.

He said his company is owed at least $600,000 for work on the $15-story, $98 million federal courthouse being built at 333 Las Vegas Boulevard South. And subcontractors working on other hotel construction projects are also having trouble collecting money they're owed, he said.

One goal of the NSCA, Newton said, "is to act like a union that would pull all subcontractors off a job if any of them aren't getting paid." Another is to establish the NSCA as a lobbying agency for subcontractors.

The Associated General Contractors (AGC) does a good job representing the interests of large contracting firms that manage construction of major projects, Newton said.

"But there are a lot of smaller subcontractors who aren't truly represented" when issues are brought before the state Legislature or other bodies, he said.

The NSCA estimates there are at least 14,000 subcontractors in Nevada, ranging in size from one-person operations to businesses that employ hundreds when they land contracts for major construction jobs.