Lawmakers order audit of NDOT

Friday, Sept. 7, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Despite a veto by Gov. Kenny Guinn, the Legislature is going ahead with an audit of the state Transportation Department, which has been the target of some stiff criticism.

The Legislative Commission Thursday authorized legislative auditor Gary Crews to start the examination and report the results by the 2003 session.

Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said there has been a lack of confidence in the department's long-term planning. She said as soon as one project is finished on Interstate 15 in Southern Nevada, the work is torn up.

"Anyone who has used I-15 has questions about the long-term planning," of the department, she said.

Guinn in June vetoed a bill by Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, that called for an audit of the agency, one of the biggest in state government.

Titus and Sen. Bill O'Donnell, R-Las Vegas, were two of the biggest critics of the department. The Titus bill passed but was disapproved by Guinn.

O'Donnell, in a speech during the unsuccessful attempt to override the governor's veto, said the department made promises "time after time" to build sound walls in Southern Nevada to protect residents from increasing noise as highways are expanded nearer to homes.

"They are taking more and more of back yards and they promise sound walls and we don't get them. And we can't find out why we can't get them, " O'Donnell said.

He said legislators have been "consistently stonewalled" when trying to obtain information from the department.

Guinn, in his veto message June 2, said he could not support an audit that would need $10,000 that would otherwise be used for highway construction.

Sen. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, at the meeting Thursday, noted that it was "obviously the will of both houses of the Legislature" that the audit be conducted.

Titus noted that Amodei had supported the veto of the governor. She said that if he had backed the override of the veto, the audit could have already started.

In June, Amodei said he supported sustaining the veto "because of loyalty to Kenny Guinn. I have to work with him."