Battle ensues on air quality

Wednesday, June 27, 2001 | 10:51 a.m.

Las Vegas city officials said Tuesday they will fight a move by Gov. Kenny Guinn to make the Clark County Commission the final authority on air-quality issues.

Their response promises a showdown involving county commissioners and city officials on several boards where both are represented.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said the city is still discussing and researching a response to Guinn's move, which became public Monday. City officials said they were shocked by the action, which undercut efforts by interlocking regional boards to create yet another agency to handle air-quality issues.

Guinn early this month vetoed a proposal to create a new agency after the Legislature failed to pass a funding plan for it.

County Commissioner Erin Kenny, however, said she worked with Guinn to select her board as the single air-quality agency for the region because it needed to be done.

"We should have been there a year and a half ago, and everybody delayed and delayed," she said.

Local governments had an opportunity to create and fund a new agency during extensive discussions on several regional agencies and committees, Kenny said. But the municipalities failed to move, instead kicking it to the state government.

"They (the cities) wanted to play but didn't want to pay," Kenny said.

County commissioners, however, "are willing to put our money where our mouth is," she said.

"We represent all of the citizens of Clark County," she said. "This is the most logical place for this agency."

Michael Hillerby, Guinn's deputy chief of staff, said the governor acted to fill a vacuum left by the failure of the Legislature to fund a new agency.

Under state and federal law, the governor has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that clean-air plans are drafted, funded and acted upon, Hillerby said.

"The county stepped forward and said, 'We can do this, we will find a way to fund this,' " he said.

Hillerby said Guinn is open to other ways to structure and fund the agency, but no one has stepped forward with concrete proposals.

The issue is important throughout the fast-growing Las Vegas Valley, since the air-quality agency can have significant effect on land use and development, including decisions made by the city governments.

City officials say that putting the county in charge of air-quality enforcement would undermine the cities' independence.

The stakes are potentially huge. Not only is power over development and land use on the line, but the region faces serious sanctions if the air doesn't get cleaned up.

The region is struggling to comply with federal mandates to clean up the Las Vegas Valley's air pollution, and the Environmental Protection Agency is weighing plans submitted by the county that are designed to improve air quality.

But putting the county in charge of the rules won't solve the problems, Goodman said. He said state law may leave an opening for a challenge.

"There is a statute that says these kinds of issues have to be placed in the hands of the Regional Planning Coalition," he said.

The state-empowered coalition, which meets Thursday, includes both county commissioners and representatives from Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City.

Goodman is the coalition chairman. It doesn't have "any ax to grind, no dog in the race. We're the right place to address air quality problems," he said.

But another coalition member is Commission Chairman Dario Herrera, who supports Guinn's move.

Also meeting Thursday is the Clark County District Health Board, an independent agency with representatives from the county and the cities. The health district oversees enforcement of air quality rules.

Under a timeline presented by the governor's office, the health board would transfer the physical assets, funding and employees of the district's Air Quality Division to the County Commission in July.

But city officials have suggested city representatives on the health board will fight the transfer.

Las Vegas Councilman Gary Reese, a sharp critic of Guinn's decision, also serves on the health board, and Goodman, although not a health board member, said he may attend the meeting.

Reese and others opposed to Guinn's action will directly face county commissioners, who welcome their new mandate.

Kenny, who appears to have solid support from her colleagues, said efforts to reverse the governor's decision won't be successful, and trying to block transfer of health district assets would be "a slap in the face of the governor."

But Goodman said he won't back down.

"I am not going to take the city down," he said.