Study ordered for proposed air-pollution control agency

Friday, Aug. 25, 2000 | 11:19 a.m.

Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny's plan to form a new agency to handle the region's air-pollution problems stumbled slightly Thursday.

Kenny squared off against Henderson Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers in a meeting of the Clark County District Board of Health. Cyphers wants a study of how the proposed agency would be structured.

Kenny, who has backed the fusion of the county administration's air-quality planning staff and the health district's air-pollution control division, doesn't want the study. She argued that the management of the new agency should have a free hand to determine the agency's structure.

Kenny proposed merging the two agencies in June after a state-sponsored study by consultants exposed communications and administrative problems between the county and health district staffs, who are working together to establish federally mandated air-pollution plans.

Kenny, a Health Board member, said the new management and the Clark County Commission have the ultimate responsibility for the structure of the new agency.

"This is not before the (health) board," she said. "We cannot arbitrarily say this is the way to put it together."

Cyphers, also a board member, said the Health Board needs to know what the structure of the new agency will be.

"It's putting all of our ducks in a row, how it should look," she said. "You do need to know what it looks like before you put it together."

The board voted 6-4 to support Cyphers' proposal. The motion was to create a three-person committee, which would include Cyphers, to look at hiring a consultant to study the structure of the proposed agency.