Reid wants BLM to end deals with land firm

Tuesday, June 18, 2002 | 11:30 a.m.

The ranking member of Nevada's congressional delegation said Monday that he will ask the Bureau of Land Management to end its relationship with a private land company with ties to controversial water projects.

Sen. Harry Reid said he has drafted a letter to BLM Director Kathleen Clark asking her to end the relationship with Nevada Land Resource Co.'s employees.

Nevada Land Resource Co. is a sister company to Vidler Water Co., which has battled public agencies in Southern Nevada over water rights. Vidler's executives have used Nevada Land Resource's vast land holdings -- it is the state's largest private landowner -- to develop water rights throughout Nevada.

David Buhlig and Jim Hutchins, Nevada Land Resource Co. employees, work out of the BLM's Carson City office. Vidler/Nevada Land Resource executives pay the salaries of the two employees, but the BLM will reimburse the companies through land transfers, BLM and company spokesmen said.

The BLM said the employees were out of the office and unavailable for comment.

According to the same sources, the employees have worked on a planned land transfer affecting the companies' planned development of a power plant in Lincoln County near the Clark County line. The companies hope to swap land in Washoe County for the land proposed for the power plant.

Jim Stobaugh, a BLM lands official in Reno, said the employees were responsible for checking the status of the lands, the feasibility of the swap, and to ensure that there were "no clear roadblocks."

BLM officials said the Vidler/Nevada Land Resource employees did not find any roadblocks that would block their companies' acquisition of the land.

Jo Simpson, BLM communications chief in Nevada, said the employees did not set policy and their work was reviewed by BLM officials. BLM office directors or State Director Robert Abbey make the final decisions regarding any land sales or transfer, Simpson said.

"It's not like David Buhlig would put this package together for the state director," Simpson said.

"They do staff work. They do not make policy decisions. They have no impact on policy."

Political leaders, however, questioned the relationship.

"I don't like it," Reid said Monday. "I am drafting a letter to (Clark) as we speak asking her to stop it. ... This looks bad."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, like Reid a Democrat, also expressed concerns about the BLM's policy of working with the land and water company.

"There is just no way around it: This is just inappropriate and wrong," said Berkley spokesman Michael O'Donovan. "The congresswoman is concerned that this just doesn't pass the smell test."

Paul Brown, Southern Nevada director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, echoed O'Donovan.

"Certainly on the service, this appears to be a conflict of interest," he said. "It doesn't pass the smell test."

Both Reid and Berkley emphasized that there is no indication anything illegal occurred at the BLM's offices in Carson City where the employees work.

Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Jim Gibbons, Republican members of Nevada's congressional delegation, were not immediately available for comment.

Vidler and its associated companies emerged from political obscurity a few years ago to become major players in state land and water policy.

Along the way, the company has gained the enmity of officials from public water agencies including the Southern Nevada Water Authority, the Las Vegas Valley Water District and the Virgin Valley Water District.

"Any time I hear Vidler's name come up, I am concerned," said Michael Winters, general manager for the Virgin Valley Water District. The district, which serves the Mesquite area, is embroiled in an ongoing dispute over water rights in nearby south Lincoln County.

"I feel like they are simply out for the big dollar," Winters said.

Vidler, the BLM and Lincoln County are involved in a three-way deal to develop the power plant in south Lincoln County about 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The land would come from the BLM, but the water would come from Vidler and Lincoln County, which have an unusual partnership to acquire and sell water.

The water would be sold to North Carolina-based Cogentrix for the power plant, grossing about $23 million for the Vidler-Lincoln County. Nevada State Engineer Hugh Ricci, however, has to rule on a protest filed by officials at the Virgin Valley Water District who fear the companies' water use will dry up wells in the Mesquite area.

BLM officials in the north part of Nevada defended the agency's relationship with Vidler/Nevada Land Resource.

Simpson said her agency does not have jurisdiction over water issues affecting Clark County or Mesquite.

"The water issues are state issues," she said. "We went into this land exchange with the objective to block up and acquire for the public land outside of Reno."

John Singlaub, Carson City field office director, said the land exchanges approved by the Nevada Land Resource employees make sense for the under-staffed BLM.

"I think we've been very good at getting extra capability to the BLM to do good things for the American public," Singlaub said.

He said the land exchange that the employees worked on -- which has been approved by the BLM -- will consolidate a patchwork of mixed federal and private land in Washoe County, allowing the BLM to better manage its property.

At the same time, the land in Lincoln County will promote economic development in an area that needs the stimulus, Singlaub said.

"There are public benefits on both sides of this," he said. "We're trying to do something that's good for the public."

If the power plant gets the water it needs, the plant will be built even if the company does not get the land, he said. If necessary, the BLM will lease the land to Vidler/Nevada Land Resource.

But swapping the land to the companies will allow Lincoln County to pick up some sorely needed property taxes, Singlaub said.

The BLM's Simpson compared the arrangement with Vidler/Nevada Land Resources to work with privately owned utilities such as Nevada Power. Those utilities and their employees frequently work with the BLM to establish rights-of-way through public land.

"This is not an unusual arrangement," she said.

The BLM officials said the land deal that their agency worked out with Vidler/ Nevada Land Resource could be consummated this fall.

Tom Bradley, a spokesman for Vidler Water Co., also defended the role that the companies' employees played.

Vidler Chief Executive Dorothy Timian Palmer's role is limited and her company does not impact BLM policy, Bradley said.

"All she does is cut a paycheck for them," Bradley said. "They take direction from the BLM."

Reid said that he believes that the arrangement does not mean there was any wrongdoing, but is driven by the lack of staffing that plagues the agency's offices in Nevada.

"I have only good things to say about (State BLM Director) Bob Abbey and John Singlaub," he said. "The fact is that we have starved those agencies."

Reid said he will work to provide additional funding to the BLM's offices so they will not be tempted to bring in outside employees to do staff work.

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