Health board says hold off on proposed audit

Friday, Jan. 26, 2001 | 11:44 a.m.

The question of what company will do an audit of a troubled air pollution program wasn't answered by the Clark County District Board of Health on Thursday.

Instead, health board members said the existence of the emissions reduction credit program itself is in doubt -- and they don't want to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on an audit for a program that might not be around long.

The program itself, in which companies can trade, buy or sell the right to put pollution into the air in return for greater reductions in pollution somewhere else, has been the target of criticism from environmentalists and by a consultant working for a state legislative subcommittee.

That subcommittee last year demanded a comprehensive audit of the emissions program, but this week the criticism turned to the company recommended by the health district's Air Quality Division staff.

The head of the three person committee assigned to choose the company, Jack Greco, charged that the company that emerged as the leading candidate to do the audit had multiple conflicts of interest. Greco repeated those charges during the health board's meeting Thursday.

He said he was withdrawing his support for the auditing team that would have been led by Hobbs Ong and Associates, a Las Vegas-based firm with close contacts to county government.

But board member Gary Reese, a Las Vegas city councilman, and Erin Kenny, a Clark County commissioner, questioned the need to spend more than $500,000 -- the Hobbs Ong bid for the audit -- on a program that the health district might not need in the future.

The money is not in the district's budget, said Dr. Donald Kwalick, the district's chief administrator.

The board instead voted to ask the Air Quality Division staff to bring back an accounting of the benefits and costs of the program to the next health board meeting in February.